The Cognition of Conflict: Ontology, Dynamics, and Ideology - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 16

OBJECTIVE NON-OBJECTIVE

SUBJECTIVE / BELIEVED

KNOWN /
CONSCIOUS

FALSE /
UNGROUNDED

NON-BELIEVED

IGNORED / ACTED

Fig. 1.4

without understanding that they are doing so or even intending to do so: we do not
understand or aim at all the outcomes or conditions of our purposive behavior.
Moreover, we should distinguish between the following types of conflict:

Same-level conflicts:
(Goal X P) and (Goal Y (Not P))

Impinging conflicts (or influence conflicts):

(Goal X (Goal Y P)) and (Goal Y (Not P))

a goal concerning the mind of the other agent.
Same-level conflicts evolve into influence conflicts : some agents will try to change
the minds of other agents.
Conflicts can be bilateral, reciprocal, or mutual, not only objectively but subjec-
tively speaking.
By bilateral I mean that X against Y and Y against X have a subjective conflict
(each believes himself to be in conflict with a goal of the other, not necessarily about
the same goal).
Reciprocal is a shared knowledge/awareness (or just a shared belief) about a
given conflict:

Goal X P and Know X ((Goal Y Q) and (Q > Not P))
and
Goal Y Q and Know Y ((Goal X P) and (P > Not Q))

Hence the notion of “noxious” goals is derived: X's goal P comes to be perceived
as noxious to Y's goal Q, and vice versa.

Goal X (Not REALIZE Y Goal Y Q))
and
Goal Y (Not REALIZE X Goal X P))

In a mutual conflict I would add the following:

- Both X and Y know about the other's respective beliefs and goals.

- They both have their respective goals because the other has such a noxious goal.

But, of course, the analysis and typology can be more sophisticated.