We will combine the humanities, social sciences, and science to find holistic solutions to social issues with inevitable trade-offs, which cannot be fully optimized.
About Us
Who we are
To give "solutions to social issues" a public meaning, we emphasize analyzing the characteristics of "society" and "issues" from the perspectives of the humanities and social sciences. Since many existing social issues involve value trade-offs, their solutions tend to be tentative and relative. We seek public solutions to social issues by carefully examining the complexity, particularity, and generality of each issue and bridging the findings to cutting-edge science and technology.
What we do
We begin by examining social issues not only as people's "needs" or historical imperatives, but also within their structural and historical contexts. Existing social issues, as represented by the SDGs and others, are not necessarily universal. Our mission is not to treat human challenges in a fixed manner but rather to seek sustainable, public solutions by integrating knowledge from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. We recognize that this knowledge is always relative and provisional.
Who we work with
In the Social Dilemma Initiative, researchers from the humanities and social sciences, with diverse backgrounds in literature, international politics, philosophy, and other fields, collaborate with experts from medical, dental, and scientific disciplines. When planning solutions to social issues, we engage in cross-disciplinary problem solving by combining humanities and social science analyses that carefully assess the particulars and generalities of the issues and practical knowledge that leverages the power of science and technology to implement these analyses in society.
