Aporia
Etymology
From Greek "aporia," "impasse" or "lack of resources," from "aporos," "impassable," built from "a-," "without," and "poros," "passage" or "way." The literal picture is of having no way through. Plato’s early dialogues often end in aporia, with Socrates and his companions admitting they cannot resolve the question — a deliberate result, meant to expose false confidence rather than to leave the reader stranded.
noun · /uh-POR-ee-uh/
A state of puzzlement or an insoluble impasse produced by contradictory yet plausible arguments.
What it names
The honest deadlock — the moment inquiry reaches a genuine "I no longer know," which can be a dead end or the exact spot where real thinking begins.
Example
Every path we mapped led to a worse outcome, and the meeting ended in a kind of collective aporia.
Related idea
An aporia is an unresolved impasse where reasoning stalls; a paradox is a specific contradiction that may still point to a hidden truth once examined.