SOURCE: “According to the Eye of the Beholder,” in Unthinking Thinking: Jorge Luis Borges, Mathematics, and the New Physics, Purdue University Press, 1991, pp. 32–42.

In the following excerpt, Merrell explores Borges's use of paradox.

I don't like writers who are making sweeping statements all the time. Of course, you might argue that what I'm saying is a sweeping statement, no?

—Jorge Luis Borges

1.

It has been said that paradox is truth standing on its head to attract attention, and that truth is paradox crying out to be transcended. The word comes from the Greek para doxos, meaning beyond belief, which is actually not befitting, for many paradoxes are the source of deep-seated convictions, if not “truth.” More appropriately, then, we might say that paradoxes are trains of thought condensed into a point of time and space. Contemplating a paradox has been compared to meditating on a Zen Koan, gazing...