ABSTRACT

In ancient Greek philosophy, the concept of aporia indicates a state of perpetual puzzlement. 1 One example comes from Plato, when he has Socrates discuss the essence of knowledge in a dialogue called Meno. In this dialogue, the character Meno is left confused over the many possible interpretations of virtue. Plato emphasizes that making a decision between two notions of virtue is easy, but that having to decide between dozens of interpretations is exceedingly difficult. The implicit lesson of the dialogue is that the presence of too much of something, of too many alternatives, can provoke confusion and inaction.