Perhaps skeptical: Borges and the esthetics of disturbance

Abstract

This article investigates the esthetic qualities of Jorge Luis Borges’s (1899-1986) skepticism. The study stars with a quotation from Otras inquisiciones (1952), in which Borges attributes his own esthetical approach of philosophical and religious texts, perhaps, to an essential skepticism. The essay “La muralla e los libros” is fundamental to the study; it allows to compare the esthetic phenomenon, according to Borges, to the skeptical suspension of judgment (epoché). The conclusion is that, differently from the Pyrrhonists, Borges’s skepticism does not undertake a quest for tranquility (ataraxia), but for the preservation of disturbance (taraxia).