10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
[U01-06] Recognizing an interface between science and decision making and promoting consilience
★Invited Papers
Keywords:consilience, science-based deliberation, decision making
The Charter of the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) declares: “The Science Council of Japan shall, after a process of careful deliberation, publicly communicate scientifically-based information, well-informed recommendations and opinions, thereby contributing to social choices regarding public policies and social institutions.” Dr. A. Weinberg, who pioneered the boiling water reactor, argues that there are “questions which can be asked of science and yet which cannot be answered by science.” Society and science definitely need to engage in deep deliberation on an interface between responsibility for making decisions by politics and society and careful science-based deliberation by the science community.
In the process of an administrative reform in Japan, SCJ faced a crisis of existence under the criticism that its raison d'etre was not clear for citizens to understand. In response to such criticism, at the beginning of its 18th term (2000-2003), SCJ started to discuss a new scientific system based on circumstances surrounding science and the relationship between science and society, and finalized a report, "A New Scientific System: Science for society and the harmonization of social and natural sciences." In its 20th term (2005-2008), SCJ issued an external report, "Proposal: Integration of Knowledge: Toward Science for Society," and proposed that an enhanced linkage between cognizing science and designing science is important for "science for society." In its 21st term (2008-2011), SCJ issued another report, "Recommendation toward 'Consilience' as Science for Society," and recommended developing "consilience knowledge base" as a basis of consilience and cultivating and increasing human resources. SCJ should further promote consilience so that science can contribute to resolving social problems by people and sovereign.
Based on the ideas described in the two paragraphs, “public communication”, which is declared as one of the key missions of SCJ in its Charter, will be discussed by quoting several examples.
In the process of an administrative reform in Japan, SCJ faced a crisis of existence under the criticism that its raison d'etre was not clear for citizens to understand. In response to such criticism, at the beginning of its 18th term (2000-2003), SCJ started to discuss a new scientific system based on circumstances surrounding science and the relationship between science and society, and finalized a report, "A New Scientific System: Science for society and the harmonization of social and natural sciences." In its 20th term (2005-2008), SCJ issued an external report, "Proposal: Integration of Knowledge: Toward Science for Society," and proposed that an enhanced linkage between cognizing science and designing science is important for "science for society." In its 21st term (2008-2011), SCJ issued another report, "Recommendation toward 'Consilience' as Science for Society," and recommended developing "consilience knowledge base" as a basis of consilience and cultivating and increasing human resources. SCJ should further promote consilience so that science can contribute to resolving social problems by people and sovereign.
Based on the ideas described in the two paragraphs, “public communication”, which is declared as one of the key missions of SCJ in its Charter, will be discussed by quoting several examples.