An aporia forces decisions that can never be pure or fully justified

Evidence

I use the word “dilemma” as a synonym for “aporia” to avoid the charge of obscurantism. An aporia is different from a dilemma in that it is insoluble— each choice cancels the other—and yet it is solved by an unavoidable decision that can never be pure. Dilemma is a logical, aporia a practical item. — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 2238

Categorization

• DEFINE: Precise definitional distinction between dilemma and aporia — directly relevant since the irony-of-essentialism bind is aporetic.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Foucauldian reading of race-struggle counter-history and the practice-theory gap. — connects to: An ultimate power to decide generates its own norms and cannot be trusted; Decisions are made under irreducible uncertainty that evidence alone cannot resolve — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 490; Anguish reveals that one’s original choice is unjustifiable and contingent — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1120 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• The absurdity of choice lives in a felt unjustifiability that freedom itself generates #corroborates (0.85) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1147
• Decisions are made under irreducible uncertainty that evidence alone cannot resolve #corroborates (0.82) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 490
• An ultimate power to decide generates its own norms and cannot be trusted #corroborates (0.80)
• The for-itself is fully responsible for its being yet cannot justify or choose it #corroborates (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 343
• Absolute freedom makes one’s every choice perpetually fragile and invertible #expands (0.80)
• Judicial decisions depend entirely on articulated reasons rather than fiat #contradicts (0.80) — Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide to Clear…, 138
• The refusal to choose is itself a choice. #expands (0.80) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism, 26
• Anguish reveals that one’s original choice is unjustifiable and contingent #corroborates (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1120
• Border situations force whole-being choices that abstract thought cannot resolve #corroborates (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 274
• Deferring a decision is an enacted form of self-deception about freedom #expands (0.72) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 291