Observations on Modernity

Niklas Luhmann

Published by Stanford University Press 1998

Observations on Modernity

Niklas Luhmann

In the series Writing Science

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503617230

Overview
Contents

About this book

This collection of five essays by Germany’s most prominent and influential social thinker both links Luhmann’s social theory to the question “What is modern about modernity?” and shows the origins and context of his theory. In the introductory essay, “Modernity in Contemporary Society,” Luhmann develops the thesis that the modern epistemological situation can be seen as the consequence of a radical change in social macrostructures that he calls “social differentiation,” thereby designating the juxtaposition of and interaction between a growing number of social subsystems without any hierarchical structure. “European Rationality” defines rationality as the capacity to see the difference between systems and their environment as a unity. Luhmann argues that, in a world characterized by contingency, rationality tends to become coextensive with imagination, a view that challenges their classical binary opposition and opens up the possibility of seeing modern rationality as a paradox. In the third essay, “Contingency as Modern Society’s Defining Attribute,” Luhmann develops a further and probably even more important paradox: that the generalization of contingency or cognitive uncertainty is precisely what provides stability within modern societies. In the process, he argues that medieval and early modern theology can be seen as a “preadaptive advance” through which Western thinking prepared itself for the modern epistemological situation. In “Describing the Future,” Luhmann claims that neither the traditional hope of learning from history nor the complementary hope of cognitively anticipating the future can be maintained, and that the classical concept of the future should be replaced by the notion of risk, defined as juxtaposing the expectation of realizing certain projects and the awareness that such projects might fail. The book concludes with “The Ecology of Ignorance,” in which Luhmann outlines prospective research areas “for sponsors who have yet to be identified.”

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Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
CHAPTER 1 Modernity in Contemporary Society Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 2 European Rationality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	22
CHAPTER 3 Contingency as Modern Society's Defining Attribute Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
CHAPTER 4 Describing the Future Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
CHAPTER 5 The Ecology of Ignorance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	136

Language: English
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 160

eBook

Published: May 2, 2022
ISBN: 9781503617230