NCJ Number
125540
Journal
Negotiation Journal Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Dated: (July 1990) Pages: 221-228
Date Published
1990
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This article discusses two modes of conflict resolution: the game-theoretic approach which emphasizes human rationality and the biogenetic approach which assumes human irrationality while accepting a larger "rationality" of evolution. The most influential books in each camp are discussed in terms of their assumptions about human nature, the type of person each nature animates, and the roles of rationality and culture in each.
Abstract
The rational choice perspective maintains that disputes arise over conflicting issues and that the parties are seeking to satisfy their issues or interests. Resolution entails a problem-solving process in which the parties try to create mutually beneficial choices. The biogenetic approach believes that the conflict reaches to basic human needs which, unlike issues or interests, are ontological and must be pursued by all means at the parties' disposal. The linguistic metaphor applies to the first model, while the second holds a psychoanalytic metaphor. A stratigraphic view of human nature would place culture in a layer between interests and fundamental needs. The rational choice approach renders culture unproblematic by taking sociocultural context as a given; the biogenetic model considers culture irrelevant because its rules for conflict resolution are universal. 3 notes, 23 references.