'CHALLENGE' AS AN ENGINE FOR HUMAN GROWTH

摘要

If the challenge is not too strong to overwhelm its target, it provokes a creative response and a transformation effecting both of them: through a process of understanding the nature of the challenge and of achieving a reconciliation. The magnitude and the nature of the change depend on the readiness of contenders for accepting a co-habitation and integration. Conflictuality stimulates the process for growth. The most effective tool in such a process is both parties' external force or inner strength, depending on the nature of the conflict. External force may be gained by taking measures for survival in elementary societies, upgrading gradually to several sophisticated technologies in more developed societies, including drastic measures. Between highly evolved societies, the method of dialogue is practiced, thus achieving resolution of issues from which greater benefits and a higher quality of life may result for all parties involved. The inner strength is, however, a more difficult quality to acquire. It can, however, be generated if a close affinity is established with the quintessence of art and nature: that is aesthetic properties. Human growth emerges in the process. This is the real meeting point of the static and the dynamic logic: Reconciliation. It allows a smooth passage from struggling in isolation to a harmonious co-habitation of different units; an integration rather than fragmentation of parts. This paper has been formulated within the context of the 'duality theory'. In its elaboration a deliberate consideration is given to 'understanding complexity' as the main theme of this Annual Meeting.