Quite a bit to think about regarding aporia. The idea of losing one’s self (going a bit beyond just emptying ones’ thought of preconceived ideas) is important in the Bible (those who save their lives shall lose them and vice versa) and in other fields such as Buddhism and with the idea of emptying the mind entirely. Yet the aporia of Socrates for me runs into a different sort of problem; that of criticism of an existing order, or external social structure, that is a common human experience for several reasons.
Socrates was gifted at criticism, yet he did so for a purpose. I must say that Russell’s criticism of Socrates during W.W. II where he said he was a fascist has influenced my ideas about Socrates such that instead of simply regarding him as being a revered and wise philosopher he was a supporter of the restoration of oligarchy and an opponent of democracy and the common man as a political peer.
The Republic of Socrates is the cause for Russell’s criticism I suppose. The two philosopher guardians of the state are virtually dictators, though benevolent ones. IMO Socrates derived the Republic as an abstract of Sparta, and Sparta was an enemy of the Athenian democracy. Socrates was charged with corrupting youth-a true charge insofar as he was trying to persuade them to support the restoration of oligarchy. So he was an actual enemy of the state in a political sense.
I won’t go too far here into the rights and wrongs of Socrates in regard to his political position. Yet his daemon in more interesting; that idea of innate ideas being brought out. Logical ideas such as those of Pythagoras could be elicited from anyone with help, as logic may be an innate paradigm for thought. It turns out that the realm of forms may be deeply consistent with quantum cosmology and standard forms for mass and energy. Maybe Plotinus' paradigm of The One allowing The Intelligence to issue the forms from a zero dimensional membrane (modernized) is entailed in the Republic.
Returning to aporia as a critical method and approach to making new idea happen. I believe that invention and redesign of anything can occur after taking things apart in the abstract and reassembling them with additional elements.
I look forward to the introduction of Hegelian elements in the course since Kierkegaard didn’t seem to like Hegel’s work at all. Aporia however as a negation of existing beliefs will forever be popular; even Marxists use it interacting with capitalist ideas. Negative criticism can be applied to anything as an analytical tool. I think what one does with it, is subjective, although one may be drawn by a calling of some form, in a way in following the will of the good.
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