A Greek word, meaning helplessness or difficulty in coping with something or finding something.
In philosophy, this term is often used to denote a conceptually or theoretically hopeless situation in which one is placed in the pursuit of certain beliefs or convictions.
This is the case with many of the endings of Plato‘s dialogues, in which the characters fall into helplessness under the pressure of Socrates’ cross-lines. At the end of these dialogues, the protagonist admits or refuses to admit that he really doesn’t know what he wants to say or think.
For Socrates, confession of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom. Also for Charles Peirce, “only the deep feeling that we are bitterly wrong can lead us in the wake of the hard work of learning” (CP 5.583).
This sense of bitter error comes from the aporia, from those theoretical impasses to which our dearest beliefs often lead.
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