Reading Borges Ethically

Although critics and lay readers have understood Jorge Luis Borges as an asocial and abstract thinker, their position has produced a reductive conception of Borges that obscures his most original aesthetic and philosophical ideas. Reconsidering Borges through three of his most famous stories- "The Garden of Forking Paths, " "A Survey of the Works of Herbert Quain, " and "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote "-reveals a philosophy of reading that, in classic Borges fashion, doubles as a philosophy of ethics. Understanding these philosophies as one and the same makes possible a fresh view of Borges's aesthetic games and his interest in human interaction.