Chapter published in:
Developing New Identities in Social Conflicts: Constructivist perspectives
Edited by Esperanza Morales-López and Alan Floyd
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 71] 2017
► pp. 67–82

Chapter 4
Understanding social conflict

Reason or emotion?

Historically social conflicts, and in general human conflicts, have been considered as domains of reasoning, treating their solutions in the context of searching for the best explanations from the point of view of the supposition of an objective reality. In this manner, we human beings have failed to resolve social conflicts; at best we have changed their form. In this paper, I will deal with conflicts from an epistemological standpoint, which is grounded in an understanding of the biological-cultural matrix of the human existence.
Keywords: human beings, emotions, reason, language, conversations, social conflicts, mutual respect, ethics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The social nature of human beings
  • 3.Emotions
  • 4.Explanations: Searching for Truths?
  • 5.Conversations
  • 6.Conflicts
  • 7.Final remarks: Reflection
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 26 July 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.71.04ram
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