Luhmann (1) Meaning, Subject, and Communication

Abstract

In Social Systems (1995), Niklas Luhmann weaves a complex theory of social systems from several areas of inquiry. He uses phenomenology to develop a theory of meaning with its related concepts. He uses the lessons of critical theory to distance himself from a philosophy of consciousness that would consider the human (transcendental) subject as the basis of meaning. He uses the concept of autopoiesis to ground his conception of psychic and social systems as self-referential systems. He uses various sources to frame his theory of communication and language. He extends self-reference to epistemology and explicitly recognizes the circularity of cognition. He uses differentiation theory to explain the development of social subsystems.

Some of these themes are more accessible than others. Three of the more accessible ones are considered in this first of four chapters: the phenomenology of meaning, the idea of the subject, and the process of communication. The discussion of meaning involves the concepts of complexity, contingency, information, selection, and negation. The discussion of “subject” gives a brief history of the concept, describes how seminal subjectivity is active in every selection, and identifies the intersubjective origin of “person.” The discussion of communication considers the paradox of double contingency in the interaction of ego and alter, and it explains how meaning provides redundancy and difference to society.