"What we agree with leaves us inactive, but contradiction makes us productive." "Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you're facing a contradiction, check your premises; you'll find that one of them is wrong."

These statements made by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Ayn Rand, respectively, on contradictions have themselves held up the contrary nature of narratives made through the course of time, and to this day, it's quite evident when we look around us.From Friedrich Nietzsche to Erwin Schrödinger, be it literary scholars, or popular scientists, time and again, contradictions seem to be a necessary sine quo non in their works. Now not all contradictions are meant to be taken seriously, and could be just rhetorical or a distracting simulation created by speakers, meant to deviate their audience from the typical train of thought. This feigned or real puzzlement is a frequently used figure of speech in English Literature— known as 'Aporia'. We come across contradictions, relevant or not, in different aspects of our life. It's certainly isn't extreme to the point of being considered as hypocrisy, or just a mere confusion, but rather on the middle ground.

The best instance of aporia is the famous expression from the Shakespearean play Hamlet :

"To be or not to be; that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all…”

It can easily be the most useful tool for a speaker to explore more beyond the set limitations on whatever they're talking about; or it could be just about as good as an irrelevant distraction for the sake of generating a sense of intrigue to get the audience's spirit back. Either way, it's a valuable philosophical, as well as a literary device, which has been popularly used by celebrated philosophers—Socrates and Plato. They consistently implemented this sense of deliberate doubt or hesitation which has been evident in their work. It's suffice to say that aporia is a relatable expression for philosophers, since the study of philosophy isn't exactly known to be as conspicuous and reasonable as science.

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