Transforming Conflict
into Emergence.
Harnessing Duality. Elevating Society.
Conflict, elevated, becomes eudaimonia. The total grows.
Settled, a conflict costs someone. Elevated, it pays everyone.
Conflict rests on the premise that one side wins. Aufhebung breaks that premise and produces something neither side held. The total grows. This is what we call abundance: the operation that turns taking from one another into creating.
Seen from the side of each person, it describes a state in which eudaimonia (being well) and ikigai (a reason to get up in the morning) hold at the same time. Our company name is the name of that world.
On our terms
Aufhebung is Hegel's concept for a movement that negates and preserves at the same time, lifting what it negates to a higher level. In Japanese it is rendered as 止揚 (shiyō). We use the German term as the name of a methodology for organizational work.
The three-step formula of thesis and antithesis to Synthese is not Hegel's own terminology. It originates with Fichte and was popularized by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus. We use the formula as a device for explanation, and place the origin of the concept in Aufhebung.
We write Synthese, the German, rather than synthesis, because synthesis slides easily into meaning a mere compromise.
The concrete methodology for diagnosing the type of a conflict and designing a response is set out in Conflictology. For the framework we use to read a person's internal structure, see Human OS.
Frequently asked
What is Aufhebung (Synthese)?
What is a Synthese Society?
Putting this to work in an organization
For work that uses Aufhebung as a methodology, grounded in Conflictology and Human OS, see What We Do.