Niklas Luhmann Quotes on Knowledge
Niklas Luhmann was a German sociologist and one of the leading systems theorists of the twentieth century. This page collects quotes attributed to Niklas Luhmann on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Niklas Luhmann:
“Society consists of communications, not of human beings.”
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Attributed to Niklas Luhmann:
“Systems reduce complexity by selecting from their environment.”
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Attributed to Niklas Luhmann:
“Trust is a strategy for the reduction of complexity.”
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“Humans cannot communicate ; not even their brains can communicate; not even their conscious minds can communicate. Only communication can communicate.”
Luhmann (1988) "How can the mind participate in communication" In: Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht et all. (Ed.) Materialities of Communication . p. 371 ( link ). -
“Does knowledge rest on construction in the sense that it only functions because the knowing system is operatively closed, therefore: because it can maintain no operative contact with the outside world; and because it therefore remains dependent, for everything that it constructs, on its own distinction between self-reference and allo-reference?”
Luhmann (1991) “Wie lassen sich latente Strukturen beobachten?,” in Paul Watzlawick , Peter Krieg (eds.), Das Auge des Betrachters: Beiträge zum Konstruktivismus. Festschrift für Heinz von Foerster , Piper, München-Zürich, p. 71; cited in: Heinz von Foerster (1993) " For Niklas Luhmann: “How Recursive is Communication?” ". Translated by Richard Howe. -
“Luhmann (1991) “Wie lassen sich latente Strukturen beobachten?,” in Paul Watzlawick , Peter Krieg (eds.), Das Auge des Betrachters: Beiträge zum Konstruktivismus. Festschrift für Heinz von Foerster , Piper, München-Zürich, p. 71; cited in: Heinz von Foerster (1993) " For Niklas Luhmann: “How Recursive is Communication?” ". Translated by Richard Howe.”
Does knowledge rest on construction in the sense that it only functions because the knowing system is operatively closed, therefore: because it can maintain no operative contact with the outside world; and because it therefore remains dependent, for everything that it constructs, on its own distinction between self-reference and allo-reference? -
“Luhmann (1982) The Differentiation of Society , Translated by Stephen Holmes and Charles Larmore. Columbia University Press, New York, 1982, pp. 261. Cited in: Loet Leydesdorff (2000) " Luhmann, Habermas, and the Theory of Communication ".”
No matter how abstractly formulated are a general theory of systems, a general theory of evolution and a general theory of communication, all three theoretical components are necessary for the specifically sociological theory of society . They are mutually interdependent. -
“It had always been clear to me that a thoroughly constructed conceptual theory of society would be much more radical and much more discomforting in its effects than narrowly focused criticisms—criticisms of capitalism for instance— could ever imagine.”
Protest . Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp,1996. p. 200 -
“Protest . Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp,1996. p. 200”
It had always been clear to me that a thoroughly constructed conceptual theory of society would be much more radical and much more discomforting in its effects than narrowly focused criticisms—criticisms of capitalism for instance— could ever imagine. -
“The following investigations attempt this transition to a radically anti-humanist, a radically anti-regionalist and a radically constructivist concept of society.”
Die folgenden Untersuchungen wagen diesen Übergang zu einem radikal antihumanistischen, einem radikal antiregionalistischen und einem radikal konstruktivistischen Gesellschaftsbegriff.