Literary notes about consensus (AI summary)
In literature, "consensus" is often portrayed as the collective agreement that underpins social order, public debate, and scientific validation. It may refer to a shared sentiment rooted in tradition and social customs, as when it is equated with the backbone of institutional norms [1, 2], or describe the convergence of diverse opinions into a unified verdict on a contentious issue [3, 4]. At times, authors suggest that such unanimity can have distorting effects, swaying ideal values or quelling dissenting voices [5, 6]. Meanwhile, consensus also finds favor in discussions of expert opinion and historical judgments—whether in dating significant events or validating scientific discoveries [7, 8, 9]—thereby illuminating its multifaceted role as both a stabilizer in group dynamics and a point of critique when it suppresses innovation [10, 11].
- Tradition and sentiment are, however, forms of consensus quite as much as constitutions, rules, and elections.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Consensus even more than co-operation or corporate action is the distinctive mark of human society.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - His logic is almost unanswerable, and the consensus of opinion is in favor of the latter town.
— from The Satyricon — Complete by Petronius Arbiter - Dewey, however, seems to restrict the use of consensus to group decisions in which all the members consciously and rationally participate.
— from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park - Consensus of opinion has a distorting effect, sometimes, on ideal values.
— from The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress by George Santayana - [2] Spoken without verse and rhyme and applied to our case, the consensus sapientium consists in this: that the consensus gentium counts as a folly.
— from Human, All-Too-Human: A Book for Free Spirits, Part 1 Complete Works, Volume Six by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - There is also a consensus of opinion that the Second Gospel cannot have been written later than about 70 a.d.
— from The Historical Evidence for the Virgin Birth by Vincent Taylor - Scriptures Unauthentic The consensus of scholarship has rejected the creation of the universe in six days in 4004 b.c. , science
— from The Mistakes of Jesus by William Floyd - The consensus of scientific opinion gives to Henry's discoveries great value in the invention of the telegraph.
— from Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and JournalsIn Two Volumes, Volume II by Samuel Finley Breese Morse - The consensus gentium and especially hominum can probably amount only to an absurdity.
— from Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - Because in the drift of the years I by and by found out that a Consensus examines a new thing with its feelings rather oftener than with its mind.
— from Mark Twain: A Biography. Volume III, Part 1: 1900-1907 by Albert Bigelow Paine
