Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences42:Consensus Building

Academic unit or major

Humanities and social science courses

Instructor(s)

Takehiro Inohara

Class Format

Lecture

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

Class

-

Course Code

LAH.S437

Number of credits

100

Course offered

2025

Offered quarter

3Q

Syllabus updated

Mar 31, 2025

Language

Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

The theme of this course is “Consensus Building.”

This course offers opportunities to:
(i) know expectations to consensus building research on the basis of differences between social choice and consensus building;
(ii) learn a mathematical approach to consensus building and results of mathematical comparison between unanimity rule and majority rule;
(iii) experience consensus building and discuss difficulty and significance of consensus building;
(iv) have knowledge of consensus and consensus building in society.

This course aims to promote students’ understanding of difficulty and significance of consensus and consensus building and to cultivate the students’ abilities to convey their understanding to others concisely.

Course description and aims

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
1) Describe consensus and consensus building;
2) State differences between social choice and consensus building.
3) Explain and discuss difficulty and significance of consensus building.
4) Give a mathematical definition of consensus building and describe results of comparison between unanimity rule and majority rule.
5) Explain consensus and consensus building in society.

Keywords

consensus; consensus building; unanimity rule; majority rule

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

Each class consists of lecture, group work, group discussion, etc.

After each class, each student submits a ”summary report" of what the student has learned in the class and answers to the assignment on the theme of the class.

Class schedule is as follows:

Class 1 1 October
Class 2 8 OCtober
Class 3 15 October
Class 4?? 22 or 29 October (the class will be canceled on the day of the Entrance Ceremony, but will be held on the other day)
Class 5 5 November
　　　　No class on 12 November
Class 6 19 November
CLass 7 26 November
　　　　No class on 2 December

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

None specified.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Course materials will be provided via Science Tokyo LMS and other means.

References (in Japanese) :
- Takehiro Inohara (ed.), “Consensus Building,”Keiso-syobo, 2011. (ISBN-13: 978-4326301966)
- T. Inohara, “Mathematical Approach to Consensus Building: An approach from social choice theory”, Journal of Japan Society for Fuzzy Theory and Intelligent Informatics, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp.322-33, 2010.
- T. Inohara, “Mathematical Approach to Consensus Building: Representation and Challenges”, Journal of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, Vol.12, No.1, pp.275-279, Aug. 13, 2013.
- T. Inohara, “What is the “consensus building science” required in modern Japan?, TASC MONTHLY, TOBACCO ACADEMIC STUDIES CENTER, No.475, 2015.7, pp. 13-19.

Evaluation methods and criteria

Assessment will be based on “summary reports” (brief summary of what you learned in each class)" (50% in total) and answers to assignments (50% in total.)

There are no make-up assignments for any absence from classes, regardless of the reason.
Read the course materials offered via Science Tokyo LMS to find out the content of the class you missed.

Related courses

• LAH.S440 ： Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences47: Decision Making D
• LAH.S508 ： Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences39: Decision Making E
• SHS.M461 ： Graduate Methodologies in Cognition, Mathematics and Information S1

Prerequisites

Prospective students should have interests in consensus building.