The article deals with Niklas Luhmann's treatise Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft, exposing it to a critique in terms of Luhmann's own criterion: plausibility. It is argued that both Parsons' general sociology and Marxism render more plausible accounts of modern society than does Luhmann's theory of autopoietic systems. It is asserted that the fundamental mistake in Luhmann's theory is his conflation of the concepts of differentiated social systems and autonomous social systems, a conflation that confers a ring of the imaginary to Luhmann's treatise.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Davis. K. & Moore, W.E.1945. Some Principles of Stratification. American Sociological Review.
2.
Habermas. J.1981. Theorie des kommunikativen Handelns. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
3.
Luhmann, N.1984. Soziale System. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Luhmann, N.1995. Die Kunst der Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
6.
Luhmann, N.1997. Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag.
7.
Marx. K.1895. Das Kapital, Book III.
8.
Marx, K., & Engels, F.1848. Communist Manifesto.
9.
Parsons, T.1940. An analytical approach to the theory of social stratification. In Essays in Sociological TheoryGlencoe, IL: Free Press.
10.
Parsons, T.1971. The System of Modern Societies. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
11.
Sartre, J.P.1940. L'imaginaire. Paris: Gallimard.
12.
Sartre, J.-P.1960. Critique de la raison dialectique. Paris: Gallimard.
13.
Sorokin, P.A.1927. Social mobility. New York: Harper and Brothers.
14.
Weber, M.1922Der Sinn der 'Wertfreit' der soziologischen und okonomischen Wissenschaften. In Gesammelte Aufsätze zur WissenschaftslehreTubingen: JCB Mohr.
15.
Østerberg, D.1988. Metasociology: an Inquiry into the Origins and Validity of Social Thought. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.
