Aporia - Introduction

I’m going to describe ‘Aporia’ as a blessed state of ambiguity! It is to have an unresolved, and perhaps unresolvable, state of contradiction in one’s thinking. I describe it as a blessed state because having questions rather than answers is very often a better way to live. The beginner thinks that, given time, they can become a master. But the master knows that there is always so much more to learn. The master learns always to approach things as a beginner. Aporia is divided into four sections – theoria, poiesis, polis and praxis. (each section is published as a separate booklet in the printed version.) Theoria asks life’s big questions: Why does anything exist at all? What is the nature of things that exist? Can we see the universe and the things that it contains as they truly are or are we forever only seeing illusions or derivatives of an underlying reality? Is there meaning in the universe? Poiesis – knowledge through virtue – looks at the foundations of morality and how these relate to the big picture explored in theoria. Poiesis examines some of the strange flaws and ambiguities in nature, and especially in our own human nature. Polis – literally the will of the people – takes up our human ambiguities and looks at how these play out in a social context – most especially in our politics. Polis suggests that – reverting to some of the thoughts expressed in theoria and poiesis – there could be a way of seeing our political selves very differently. This alternative way contrasts strongly with the way such matters are usually expressed in today’s societies. Praxis looks at three specific existential concerns – Artificial General Intelligence, climate change and war – and explains how all of what has been examined in the first three parts of the work could be brought to bear on these subjects. As I’ve suggested by the title and explained above – all of this is highly speculative. I am just inviting the reader to ask questions and I’m happy for people to disagree with anything and everything that I’ve written. It’s all about the conversation.

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