Table of Contents

Foreword Instead of a preface to the English edition: on the concepts 'subject' and 'action' Preface to the German edition Introduction: paradigm change in systems theory 1. System and function 2. Meaning 3. Double contingency 4. Communication and action 5. System and environment 6. Interpenetration 7. The individuality of psychic systems 8. Structure and time 9. Contradiction and conflict 10. Society and interaction 11. Self-reference and rationality 12. Consequences for epistemology Notes Index.

About the Author

Niklas Luhman is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Bielefeld. Several of his books have appeared in English, most recently Essays in Self-Reference

Reviews

"Social Systems presents Luhmann's startling vision of society as a self-producing or autopoietic system of communications... Theories of self-reference are the way forward now in a host of disciplines - the hard sciences, law, literature, psychology, and philosophy. Luhmann's reproduction within sociology of the new systems theory of self-reference vastly enriches our understanding of the possibilities of systems theory for other disciplines." - Arthur J. Jacobsen, Yeshiva University