Organizing Husserl

Abstract

Whereas the voluminous work of Niklas Luhmann (1927-98) can be considered as a major focus of discussions in theoretical sociology in the German-speaking world, it has only been translated sporadically and remains widely unknown in the English-speaking world. This review article provides a general introduction to Luhmann’s systems theory. Section I embeds systems theory in a broader philosophical context and traces its particular legacy. It demonstrates, in contrast to Luhmann’s rhetoric of starting afresh, that his theory inherits and reformulates the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. In Section II, Luhmann’s basic concept of system is developed, modeled on his early understanding of formal organization. The epistemological and ontological uncertainty that lies beneath the necessity of organizing proves to be the raison d’être of social systems in general. Finally, in Section III, the problem of uncertainty is translated into a situation of double contingency which, according to Luhmann, makes up the core of every form of socialization. It is shown how systems theory provides an alternative to conceiving society as being either normatively or rationally constituted.