On the function of arguing and judging on the basis of “The Theologians”

Abstract

The story "The theologians", by Borges, can be read from an axis of opposites that are confused, of truths that, when falsified, are once again considered such, put at the service of maintaining an order in which the characters vary from accusers to victims. From this perspective, the story allows us to consider different variables that cover the modes of argumentation in judicial matters, the different ways of resolving disputes, the role of judges and their place within the system in which they operate, the concept of truth in the penal system and the question of how social violence is neutralized or conflicts which are solved in a community. In order to develop this analysis, I will begin with a brief description of the story with special emphasis on the way in which the characters advance within a normative scaffolding built in pursuit of the persecution of those who put their faith at risk in a fabric of accusations, trials, and death sentences. Then I will briefly review how the trial system that communities have chosen to manage their conflicts of a criminal nature has been built to date, and I also consider who are able to judge and apply punishment. I will try, based on the descriptions of the story itself, to present the forms of foundation and, where appropriate, the manipulation of argumentative tools and the way in which the notion of truth plays or not a central role in the administration of justice.