Katastrofekansen testen: een observatie van de maatschappijtheorie in Niklas Luhmann, die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft

In Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (1997), Niklas Luhmann systematizes his theory of society. This article discusses the main lines of the book. Attention is given, first, to Luhmann's notion of society. According to Luhmann, society is the momentary whole of all Communications. Each observation of society takes place within society. Thus, sociology can’t consider itself to be an independent observer who studies society from the outside. Next, we focus on Luhmann's theory of evolution. We indicate how the evolution of society as a closed communicative system runs simultaneously with the evolution of communicative media. After marking the difference between Luhmann's theory of evolution and history, we connect the concept of evolution with Luhmann's differentiation theory. Finally, it is shown how evolution in forms of differentiation are being translated into societal self descriptions.