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Philosophic des Als Ob

Index: Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.

Fishburn and Hughes: "From the German als ob meaning 'as if’: a philosophy which, starting from the postulate that reality is not knowable, holds that pragmatically justifiable theories and systems are equally valid. The theory was formulated by the idealist positivist Ernst Vaihinger (1852-1933) in Die Philosophic des Als Ob (1911). In spite of claims to the contrary, Borges has read this work since a copy has been found in Xul Solar’s library with handwritten annotations by him. See Variaciones Borges, 15, 2003, p176." (152)