Saturday, January 21, 2017

Aporia (ἀπορία) and other mysteries


I hope to use this space as a buffer (to catch related passing interests before they dissipate). The internet is a good place for collecting things of oddity or interest and holding them to task. I say "mystery" and "passing interests" here knowing full well that there are others more determined and learned than myself to whom these things will be neither mysterious nor temporary in character.

While down the rabbit hole of researching for my Capstone class (which has been using philosophy as a catch-all term for ideology and focusing on Foucault), I stumbled onto a hole in my knowledge.

On a whim, I had looked up on of the more obscure terms (there were many  obscure   terms) used by one of the less esoteric post-structural thinkers (Derrida). At this point I am not even sure if its current "aporetic" use was invented by him or just used idiosyncratically by him, as much of post-structural analysis seems to entail highly arcane readings of significant literature. The term was "aporia", or "aporias".

I suppose that this qualifies as several holes in my knowledge. Many of the structural critiques of the post-structural turn still escape me in import (especially in an articulate sense). But more importantly, this was several somethings that I did not know, all of which relied on things I had access to.

Derrida, and some secondary sources commenting on Deleuze, seemed to be using aporia in a manner according to Kant's antimony (sometimes about Kant's antinomies, in ways that would not occur to me as a reader of Kant to do in similar contexts). Dictionary pages cite it back to Greek, as "ἀπορία" originally. Is there a better translation? Finally, it seems to have some relevance to Plato's dialogues in which it appears as a concept. We may be reading some context in the coming weeks.

Rather than relying on the initial impressions I had during preliminary internet research, I am interested in learning (whenever I do) about the truth of the meaning in context. There is definite evidence of a concept evolving over time from cultural or intellectual pressure. As Platonic scholarship goes generally, I hope that the cases which involve charismatic accident come to light.

1 comment:

  1. Aporia, and its adjectival form, aporetic, is a philosophical term that predates Derrida by many centuries. It stems from Socrates' modest claim to active curiosity absent any claim to settled knowledge. We will certainly be discussing it.

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