“Aporia: The literal meaning of the word is ‘an unpassable path,’ and it is used in Greek philosophy to describe the perplexity induced by a group of statements which, whilst they are individually plausible, are inconsistent or contradictory when taken together (see Plato, The Republic, Philebus, and Protagoras). In rhetoric, the term is applied to the deliberate expression of doubt or uncertainty. The idea of aporia has been taken up by deconstructionists such as [Jacques] Derrida, who use it to describe the undecidability of terms that cannot be reduced to a play of binary oppositions. Derrida’s exploration of the aporias present in Plato’s use of the word pharmakon, which can mean both ‘poison’ and ‘antidote,’ is the classic example of the deconstructionist use of the term.”
Excerpted from: Macey, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. New York: Penguin, 2001.
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