Niklas Luhmann Quotes on Nature
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 nature, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Niklas Luhmann:
“Systems reduce complexity by selecting from their environment.”
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“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. -
“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.”
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 ". -
“Whatever we know about society, or indeed about the world in which we live, we know through the mass media. This is true not only of our knowledge of society but also of our knowledge of nature.”
The reality of the Mass Media(2000) | p. 1.