Aporia

Aporia (ἀπορία) means, literally, 'no way through' — from a- ('without') and poros ('passage', 'ford', 'resource'). It names the state of being stuck, at a loss, unable to find a way forward; in philosophy it is the perplexity into which hard questions lead.

The sting of the question

Many of Plato's early dialogues end in aporia: once the elenchus has demolished every proposed definition, the speakers are left puzzled and empty-handed. Socrates compares himself to a stingray that numbs whomever it touches, and to a midwife who delivers others of their ideas — and finds many of them stillborn.

Why it matters

Far from a failure, aporia is the necessary beginning of philosophy. One cannot seek what one believes one already possesses; only the shock of recognizing one's ignorance turns the soul toward genuine inquiry. The barren puzzlement of the early dialogues is the cleared soil in which recollection and dialectic can take root. Aristotle too made it a method, opening many investigations by first setting out the aporiai — the puzzles any solution must resolve.