Gesellschaftsstruktur und Semantik

This fourth volume of Niklas Luhmann's studies on the relationship between social structure and semantics demonstrates, through the theme of "nature," that the old (Aristotelian) paradox of a nature that is both natural (perfect) and unnatural (corrupt) cannot be sustained under modern conditions. It is resolved into various concepts of nature. The concept of "culture," often presented as the opposite of "nature," leads to entirely different problems. It should be noted that these are conceptual inventions of the late 18th century, thus representing a historical concept that is simultaneously endowed with a historically and regionally universal claim to validity. Another question is what happens when the old concept of "admiratio" (admiration, wonder, astonishment, horror) is abandoned and replaced by notions of disturbance or irritation. The concept of "state" can illustrate that five hundred years of history associated with this word have responded to very different social structural conditions. This raises the question of what can still be expected of the state in today's increasingly globalized political conditions. And what significance does the concept of "barbarism" hold for a sociological diagnosis of the times? Topics of this nature are no longer addressed in the style of classical sociology of knowledge. Instead, in the final chapter of the volume, the sociology of knowledge in the orientation set forth by Marx and Mannheim becomes the subject itself.