Niklas Luhmann

Niklas Luhmann ( born December 8, 1927 in Lüneburg, † November 6, 1998 in Oerlinghausen ) was a German sociologist and social theorist. As the most important representatives of the sociological systems theory, Luhmann one of the outstanding classics of the social sciences in the 20th century.

Life

Luhmann was born in 1927 into the family of a brewery owner in Lüneburg and visited the ancient languages ​​Johanneum. In 1944 he was officially drafted at the age of 16 years as an Air Force auxiliary, after he had worked since the age of 15 there. From 1944 to September 1945 Luhmann was in American captivity, to which he once said in an interview:

" [ ... ] The treatment was - to put it mildly - not according to the rules of international conventions. "

As recently as 2007 it was announced Niklas Luhmann was listed as a member of the NSDAP.

Luhmann studied from 1946 to 1949 Law at the Albert -Ludwigs- University of Freiburg, with an emphasis on Roman law. It was followed by 1953 a clerkship in Lüneburg. 1954 to 1962 he was an administrative officer in Lüneburg, 1954-1955 at the Higher Administrative Court of Lüneburg assistant to the president. During this time he also began to build up his card boxes. 1960/61, Luhmann received a training scholarship to Harvard University, which he could perceive by his leave of absence. There he came into contact with Talcott Parsons and the structural functional systems theory. After working as a lecturer at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer from 1962 to 1965 and as head of department at the Social Research Centre at the University of Münster in Dortmund from 1965 to 1968 ( 1965/66 next to a semester studying sociology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster ( Westphalia ) ) he was there in 1966 for Dr. sc pol. (Doctor of Social Sciences ) doctorate with the 1964 published book functions and consequences of formal organization. Five months later, he completed his habilitation at Dieter Claessens and Helmut Schelsky with legal and automation in the public administration. An administrative science investigation. With his appointment in 1968, Luhmann was the first professor at the University of Bielefeld. There he helped build the first sociological faculty in German-speaking with, taught and conducted research until his retirement in 1993.

Luhmann married in 1960 Ursula von Walter. The marriage produced a daughter and two sons were born. His wife died in 1977; afterwards he moved his children by herself. After the death of his wife Luhmann moved from Bielefeld to Oerlinghausen to.

Discount

Luhmann's children fought for years in court to the ownership and copyrights to his scientific work, including the famous list box, and then the OLG Hamm ruled in 2004 that his daughter solely entitled to the rights to it. Luhmann had turned to her still alive in 1995 in a pre- legacy all copyright, as it was his wish that his intellectual legacy remains in one hand. The value of his scientific legacy is estimated to be seven -digit Euro amount.

The University of Bielefeld in 2011 acquired the estate of Luhmann and plans to build a Luhmann archive. The most important part of the estate is the famous paper box, the basis of extensive work.

Honors

Characterization of the work

Luhmann's systems theory sees society not as a collection of people with circulatory systems and other non - social systems, but as a surgically closed process of social communication.

See also the main article system theory ( Luhmann)

Systems theory focuses on self-referential social operations ( communication). Self-referential to say that systems refer only to their internal operations and yet are cognitively open. The Leitdifferenzen of social function systems referred Luhmann code ( in the example " right / wrong " for the legal system ). Most functional systems are oriented to symbolically generalized communication media, the economy about money.

Luhmann's systems theory is based on the equation of society with communication. He treats evolution of communication - from orality ( oral communication ) via script to electronic media - and parallel to the evolution of society through functional differentiation (see also social differentiation). There would be three strands:

Which pervade his entire work.

Since the 1980s, Luhmann refers fundamentally to the differential logic of the Laws of Form of the British mathematician George Spencer - Brown.

Effect and critique in sociology and beyond

Luhmann system theory (as opposed to the general system theory by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Others and the social systems theory of Talcott Parsons ) is currently considered one of the most successful and popular theories in the German-speaking world, not only in sociology, but also in various fields such as psychology, theory of management or literary theory. Internationally, it affects the socio-philosophical discourse, with significant Luhmann flows in Germany, the USA, Japan, Italy and Scandinavia have emerged.

Luhmann designated Although life as a sociologist, but he can be - as Jürgen Habermas - at the same time also be regarded as a philosopher of science who has the sociology very excited and had a remarkable sociological Judgement. In various areas of philosophy ideas Luhmann be rezipiert.

The absence of a primary normative element in Luhmann's system theory has sparked a fierce debate in part not only in sociology. From an epistemological perspective is criticized, the theory run on the basis of their tautological, descriptive approach, into space and say no more about the world than what we might already know, or because of specialized scientific knowledge already about them. It is this constructivist approach in turn is an essential feature of the theory: As an observer of the world, we can, according to Luhmann only identify and describe what is observable to us.

Writings

• Social Systems (1984 ), ISBN 3-518-28266-2
• The Society of Society ( 1997), ISBN 3-518-58240-2 Review: Hauke ​​Brunkhorst in Time, June 13, 1997.

• The economy of the society (1988 ), ISBN 3-518-28752-4
• The Science of Society ( 1990), ISBN 3-518-28601-3
• The right of the Company (1993 ), ISBN 3-518-28783-4
• The reality of the mass media (1996 ), ISBN 3-531-12841-8
• The Art of Society ( 1997), ISBN 3-518-28903-9 ( open access digitized, PDF, 4.4 MB)
• The Company (2000), ISBN 3-518-29182-3 policy
• The religion of the Society ( 2000), ISBN 3-518-29181-5
• The educational system of the company ( 2002), ISBN 3-518-29193-9
• The moral of the Company ( together with Detlef Horster, 2008), ISBN 978-3-518-29471-0

• Introduction to System Theory ( 2002), ISBN 3-89670-292-0
• Introduction to the Theory of Society ( 2005), ISBN 3- 89670-477 X -
• With Raffaele De Giorgi Teoria della società (1992 ), ISBN 88-204-7299-6

• Functions and consequences of formal organization (1964 )
• Concept of purpose and system rationality (1968 )
• Organization and decision-making (2000), ISBN 3-531-13451-5 Reviews: Detlef Horster in SZ 17 Juni/18. June 2000; Niels Werber at: Fri, 30 August 2000.

• Social structure and semantics, 4 vols
• Love as Passion ( 1982)
• Observations of the Modern (1992 ), ISBN 3-531-12263-0
• Idea Evolution ( Edited by André Kieserling, 2008), ISBN 3-518-29470-9

• Sociological Enlightenment, 6 vols

• Function and causality. in: KZfSS 14, 1962, pp. 617-644; back into Jürgen Friedrichs & Karl Ulrich Mayer & Wolfgang Schluchter, eds. Sociological theory and empiricism. KZfSS. Selection band. West German publishing house, ISBN 3-5311-3139-7 Opladen 1997 p 23-50
• Fundamental rights as an institution. A contribution to political sociology ( writings on public law, Volume 24 ), 5th edition, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-428-00959-6.
• Public-sector compensation, legal policy considered (1965 )
• Confidence - a mechanism of reduction of social complexity. Enke, Stuttgart 1968.
• Legitimation by procedure ( 1969), ISBN 3-518-28043-0
• Policy Planning (1972 )
• Power (1975 )
• Function of religion (1977 )
• Sociology of Law (1980 )
• Ecological Communication ( 1986), ISBN 3-531-51775-9
• Speech and silence (along with Peter Fuchs, 1989)
• Sociology of risk ( 1991), ISBN 3-11-012939-6
• Writings on art and literature (Edited by Niels Werber, 2008), ISBN 978-3-518-29472-7
• Political Sociology (Edited by André Kieserling, 2010), ISBN 978-3-518-58541-2