This entire process seems eerily similar to a Hegelian dialectic, especially the last step of “Seek Fusion, Not Compromise”. In the Hegelian sense, we start with a Thesis, Antithesis, and then move to an Overcoming which is an argument that can contain the contradiction between the Thesis and Antithesis, without losing the contradiction in a typical Synthesis (for a Platonic Dialectic).
A simple example is on the topic the status of our life, introduced to me by a former professor. Thesis: We are living beings. Anti-thesis: We are all dying beings. Synthesis (that loses the contradiction): Living/Dying is marked by cellular regeneration. When we start to lose more cells than we regenerate, we are dying. Before that, we are living. Becoming/Overcoming: Living and Dying are at the same time the same and different. We know that they can be the same, but feel distinctly different.
This may seem like a weird example but the point is that most people are used to Synthesis type of resolutions vs. Becoming/Overcoming in a Hegelian sense, but resolutions that hold any abstract weight to move forward must contain the contradiction before it, instead of losing it. There’s other examples that seem to be Hegelian even if denied by their author (Nietzsche’s moral genealogy of good/bad → good/evil → Ubermensch).
This may be too specific into one area of philosophy but I think there’s merit to characterizing these sorts of rationality exercises in ways that are historically important as well. Perhaps why some people in the comments have a hard time using this process in practice is because finding an overcoming/becoming argument is typically hard.
This entire process seems eerily similar to a Hegelian dialectic, especially the last step of “Seek Fusion, Not Compromise”. In the Hegelian sense, we start with a Thesis, Antithesis, and then move to an Overcoming which is an argument that can contain the contradiction between the Thesis and Antithesis, without losing the contradiction in a typical Synthesis (for a Platonic Dialectic).
A simple example is on the topic the status of our life, introduced to me by a former professor.
Thesis: We are living beings.
Anti-thesis: We are all dying beings.
Synthesis (that loses the contradiction): Living/Dying is marked by cellular regeneration. When we start to lose more cells than we regenerate, we are dying. Before that, we are living.
Becoming/Overcoming: Living and Dying are at the same time the same and different. We know that they can be the same, but feel distinctly different.
This may seem like a weird example but the point is that most people are used to Synthesis type of resolutions vs. Becoming/Overcoming in a Hegelian sense, but resolutions that hold any abstract weight to move forward must contain the contradiction before it, instead of losing it. There’s other examples that seem to be Hegelian even if denied by their author (Nietzsche’s moral genealogy of good/bad → good/evil → Ubermensch).
This may be too specific into one area of philosophy but I think there’s merit to characterizing these sorts of rationality exercises in ways that are historically important as well. Perhaps why some people in the comments have a hard time using this process in practice is because finding an overcoming/becoming argument is typically hard.