"Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius": A Case Study in the Refutation of Idealism

Abstract: In "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," Jorge Luis Borges describes a world whose residents are Berkeleyan idealists: They hold that only ideas exist, and that for such ideas, their esse is percipi . The culture, science, and religion of the world Borges describes provide a useful tool for philosophers interested in idealism. My paper uses Borges's story as case study in the untenability of idealism. I will show, following Immanuel Kant, that idealists cannot meet their own demand to articulate a coherent mental autobiography, and so cannot even conceive of themselves as the single subject of their own experience.