And now let's start. How will you call this situation? And this? And this? Just let me guess... Have you just mentioned something like “an argumentation”, “a quarrel”, “a war”? Names differ but the essence remains the same – it's a conflict, i.e. the situation where the interests of opposite groups meet. When do conflicts appear? First, there should be some “participants” of the conflict. Then, there should be certain “difference” that reveals itself in people's appearance, manner of speaking, habits, life-vision, position, preferences, level of education, etc. When this difference becomes obvious for the participants and they are not eager to accept it, the very “difference” turns out to become a “controversy”. Then a “question” appears – what should we do? Let me call this situation “a potential conflict”. If the participants are not able to find the answer to solve this problem, they begin to act and that announces the beginning of the “open conflict”. The form of the conflict depends on the way they act. Conflicts can manifest themselves in different forms – from argumentation to confrontation, from quarrel to war. There exists an opinion that all conflicts are destructive. But is it really so? No doubts that such form as “a war” as far as any other aggressive conflict is destructive. But what about other conflict types? I tend to believe that conflict can manifest itself in a rather constructive form – argumentation. Argumentation is close to debate and discussion where two or more points of view are opposed to each other in order to find the answer to any question. This is the mildest kind of conflict that is constructive from the point of view of its nature. Through thrives on conflict, people say.
