TIME AS A METAPHYSICAL DILEMMA: JOSE LUIS BORGES’ TREATMENT OF THE NATURE OF TIME IN HIS SELECTED WORKS

Abstract

The  concept  of  time,  which  has  been  a  major  subject  of  study  in  various  fields,  defies  a  neat  definition.  Many  scholars  have  failed  to  define  it  in  a  manner  applicable  to  all  fields.  Generally, time can be defined as the unlimited continued progress of existence and events  in  the  past,  present  and  future,  regarded  as  a  whole.  It  is  a  measure  in  which  events  can  be  ordered  from  the  past  through  the  present  into  the  future.  Some  schools  of  thought  deny the existence of time. They argue that the present is undefined and indefinite; and the  future has no reality except as present recollection. In some of his works, Jose Luis Borges (1899–1986) describes time in a linear manner, that is to say, that humans experience time  as a series of present moments, one following the other.  The past and the future both exist  nowhere but in the human mind. Borges seems to agree with the notion that time is but a  figment of the mind. In other stories, his perception of time is circular. Thus, the focus of the  current  article  is  on  time,  which  is  a  metaphysical  dilemma,  and  Borges’  treatment  of  the   nature of time in his selected works.