ONE DIVIDE is a professional consulting firm operating from the principles derived from the Philosophy of One Divide: A philosophical psychology and behavioral, and comprehensive psychopathology framework predicated on its theory of Emotional Warfare, which includes centralized and universalized conceptions that are biologically, genetically, and/or psychologically influenced, working in tandem with human cognitive development — providing objective intelligence about human conflict and how to achieve human unity through new behavior-pattern identification, processing, and pattern recognition of Emotional Warfare:
An evolving law of human nature
and common denominator of the human condition.
Advancing Human Nature in the Age of Technology
The “True/False” Problem
It is generally understood that even universal, synchronized events are experienced on an individual basis, albeit within a collective interpersonal (or shared) framework, the individual experience emerges from or is attached to the subjective personal narrative, which is also computationally bound. This adds to the noise of the collective psychosocial, interpersonal narrative surrounding these advancing technologies. To advance human nature in the Age of Technology, to cut through the noise, the focus of the One Divide Platform is grounded in not only where we are presently but also where we are heading.
Within the subjective computational boundaries, an additional complication becomes apparent: it is not only the classic philosophical “is/ought” problem we are attempting to solve but also the “true/false” problem of how we want to interpret or make inferences about human behavior(s) and thus human experience and the human condition neuro-physiologically. It is not the “where we are” part of the equation but rather the “where we are headed,” whether philosophically, psychologically, or technologically, that will be defined by the element of habit and action that initiates patterns of behavior — which operate within various situational dynamics that come to inform and define the human experience.
However, changing situational dynamics is dependent upon actionable steps of (1) gaining awareness and (2) an explicit understanding of the problem involved, and (3) the problem-solving sequence for it.
With the sound notion that computational formulas or algorithmic sequences based in objectivity generally outperform subjective judgements or decisions made by individual agents, the classic philosophical "is/ought" problem once again arises. When inserted into the modern context of where we are and where we are headed in terms of continuing the human evolutionary process through and beyond the twenty-first century, this problem calls up the issues surrounding consciousness, intelligence, and simulation theories attempting to underpin and inform our understanding of human behavior and of human knowledge: Recursively initiating the “true/false” problem.
Operating intentionally from first principles, and despite all the diverse topics of exploration relevant to this discussion, bringing further awareness and explicit understanding of Emotional Warfare as an evolving law of human nature that comprises very concrete, weakly emergent strata and principled philosophical and psychological notions revealed within the Philosophy of One Divide's groundwork, continuously extends the (self-)evidentiary range of the theory of Emotional Warfare — pushing the One Divide Platform, and our understanding of human behavior and of human knowledge, toward a seamless intellectual bridge between the domains of Philosophy, Psychology, and Artificial Intelligence [AI].
The One Divide / Emotional Warfare Platform
Capturing the Realities of Behavioral Phenomena
Through advancing intellectual precursors and academic approaches and common knowledge born of human experience, using a category-inspired language system, the Philosophy of One Divide uniquely articulates the issues central to human conflict and human unity — and provides human transformation potential and optimization through a critical overview of human nature and human psychology. This yields a comprehensive psychopathology framework that captures the realities of behavioral phenomena informed by the deterministic mechanistic-functionalism of Emotional Warfare and the intra-interplay of its Pattern(s).
This platform explores and reveals the nonsubjective, nonexperiential self, examining universal and evolutionary behavioral principles through a first-person practical, philosophical, and psychological perspective, yielding conceptual clarity. It utilizes education as a means of intra- and interpersonal, assisted or unassisted intervention through an advanced platform for philosophy, theory, and practice that applies to mental health and mental illness, including both psychotic and nonpsychotic afflictions, advancing traditional platforms and psychologies (including social and humanistic) in a manner that extends through all levels of discourse — from the metatheoretical to the sociopolitical.
“A Critical Contribution to Understanding Mental Health & Illness”
I have accumulated 70+ years of life experience and have studied the human condition for the past 5 decades. It is my professional opinion that Edward Kroger’s One Divide Philosophy — and his Theory of Emotional Warfare — addresses important and outstanding questions and problems in our understanding of both adaptive and maladaptive human behaviors. Importantly, the claims made by the philosophy are rational and evaluable and these insights are consistent with current psychological knowledge and theories of and about human conduct.
Kroger’s philosophical contribution provides some powerful clues about the nature of both mental health and mental illness — two concepts which remain to this day poorly defined and understood. Commonly, these are practically and ineffectively defined with respect to one another. That is, mental health is the condition when one does not harbor mental illness, whilst mental illness is when one is not mentally healthy. As a result, we have limited useful insight as to how and why behavioral disorders arise (and are best treated) and only dim comprehension of how we may achieve, maintain, and characterize mental health.
The One Divide Philosophy and Theory of Emotional Warfare, on the other hand, recognizes maladaptive and abnormal mental dysfunctions (i.e., mental illnesses) which exist on the basis of brains that don’t work effectively (i.e., “broken brains” and most psychoses) and those where functionally effective brains aren’t used effectively (i.e., “intact brains” and the neuroses). Crucially, Kroger’s philosophy applies to both non-psychotic and psychotic afflictions! Interestingly, this perspective is shared by the Clinical Psychology Division of the British Psychological Association’s Power Threat Meaning Framework, a product of an entirely different group operating a continent and an ocean distant from Edward Kroger. Which implies that multiple persons are coming to identical, or at least similar, conclusions.
In sum, the One Divide Philosophy and Theory of Emotional Warfare deserves serious attention from those who care for and about the mentally afflicted, whether they be academically, theoretically and philosophically, or therapeutically inclined.
Read more of Dr. Schmidt's compelling review of One Divide
Waldemar A. Schmidt, PHD, MD
Professor Emeritus
Oregon Health and Science University