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Socrates on the Aporetic Method

The Apology

“In the end, very often we do not know, or there is some way that we know, which is in fact the way that we do not know. Thus, it may be said that the Sophists were wise, for although they knew, they also knew that they knew not.”


The aporetic method, or an aporetic argument, is such that it generates a state of puzzlement ( aporia in its subjective sense) by way of the equality of opposite reasonings, that is, by way of a problem or difficulty (aporia in the objective sense) put forward in the course of philosophical investigation.