TRIZ/CrePS Approach to the Social Problems of Poverty: ‘Liberty vs. Love’ Is Found the Principal Contradiction of the Human Culture

Abstract

This is the first report of applying the TRIZ/CrePS methodology to real social problems. The problem of poverty among the elderly people in Japan is selected. I used “The Low-living Elderly (LLE)” book (T. Fujita, 2015) as the reference, and fully visualized its logic by use of the Fuda-Yose Tool (developed by A. Katahira). The book author explains that many LLE people are produced by the current social system and many more will be in future. However, in the customer reviews, many readers evaluate this best-seller book poorly, saying “For falling into LLE, the LLE people themselves are responsible, not the society”. Underneath these arguments I recognized the conflict of two social philosophies: “Win or Lose in the competitive world” on one side, and “Be kind and fair to all” on the other hand. I formalized the observation in a hypothesis: Human Culture takes Liberty as the First Principle while Love as the Second. The two Principles however often conflict. ‘Liberty vs. Love’ is the Principal Contradiction inherent in the Human Culture. Humans have been trying to solve the Principal Contradiction. But the ‘Liberty vs. Love’ contradictions exist and newly appear everywhere, and getting even more difficult to solve. Revealing why and how they are made difficult to solve and investigating what are the ideal situations of coexisting of Liberty and Love are the important future tasks. The present study was guided by the CrePS process and the TRIZ philosophy of contradiction.