Helmut Reimitz
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159096
- eISBN:
- 9781400849895
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159096.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This book concludes with two afterwords, the first of which argues how centering itinerancy as concept and method enables a reconsideration of scale in the historian's craft. It emphasizes the book's ...
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This book concludes with two afterwords, the first of which argues how centering itinerancy as concept and method enables a reconsideration of scale in the historian's craft. It emphasizes the book's focus on itinerant matter and cultural practices, from music and musicians to body movements, pidgin, gift-giving, and aluminum, that traverse vast spaces—oceans, regions—or centuries, or both at the same time. The second afterword draws on the work of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann to reflect on the culture concept itself and the ways in which it needs to be implicated in the moving practices explored by the book. It also considers how cultural processes extending backward past European modernity raises new questions about the history of how the modern concept of culture was itself established in Europe.Less
This book concludes with two afterwords, the first of which argues how centering itinerancy as concept and method enables a reconsideration of scale in the historian's craft. It emphasizes the book's focus on itinerant matter and cultural practices, from music and musicians to body movements, pidgin, gift-giving, and aluminum, that traverse vast spaces—oceans, regions—or centuries, or both at the same time. The second afterword draws on the work of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann to reflect on the culture concept itself and the ways in which it needs to be implicated in the moving practices explored by the book. It also considers how cultural processes extending backward past European modernity raises new questions about the history of how the modern concept of culture was itself established in Europe.
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804769129
- eISBN:
- 9780804777810
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804769129.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
In his Theory of Communication Action, Jürgen Habermas talks about a “reconstructive social theory which employs a dual perspective”—the perspective of “system” and “lifeworld.” Habermas's proposed ...
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In his Theory of Communication Action, Jürgen Habermas talks about a “reconstructive social theory which employs a dual perspective”—the perspective of “system” and “lifeworld.” Habermas's proposed theory “should explain how the reconstructed normative self-understanding of modern legal orders connects with the social reality of highly complex societies.” In developing the “communication theory of society” in which his “discourse theory of law” is to be situated, Habermas departs from his earlier understanding of the relation between system and lifeworld. This chapter explores Habermas's concepts of system and lifeworld as well as his communication theory of society. It considers his “model of the circulation of political power”, which presents the idea of “civil society” as an elaboration of the lifeworld's “private sphere.” It also discusses Habermas's reference to the three “structural components” (culture, society, and personality) and argues that his notion of “system” and “lifeworld” is similar to the post-Parsons “autopoietic” systems theory of Niklas Luhmann. Finally, the chapter rejects the concept of lifeworld as separate social sphere.Less
In his Theory of Communication Action, Jürgen Habermas talks about a “reconstructive social theory which employs a dual perspective”—the perspective of “system” and “lifeworld.” Habermas's proposed theory “should explain how the reconstructed normative self-understanding of modern legal orders connects with the social reality of highly complex societies.” In developing the “communication theory of society” in which his “discourse theory of law” is to be situated, Habermas departs from his earlier understanding of the relation between system and lifeworld. This chapter explores Habermas's concepts of system and lifeworld as well as his communication theory of society. It considers his “model of the circulation of political power”, which presents the idea of “civil society” as an elaboration of the lifeworld's “private sphere.” It also discusses Habermas's reference to the three “structural components” (culture, society, and personality) and argues that his notion of “system” and “lifeworld” is similar to the post-Parsons “autopoietic” systems theory of Niklas Luhmann. Finally, the chapter rejects the concept of lifeworld as separate social sphere.
Robert van Krieken
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199282548
- eISBN:
- 9780191700200
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282548.003.0025
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter explores the association between law and sociology in family law against the background of a discussion of Niklas Luhmann's analysis of law's combined operational closure and cognitive ...
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This chapter explores the association between law and sociology in family law against the background of a discussion of Niklas Luhmann's analysis of law's combined operational closure and cognitive openness. For Luhmann, the thought of autonomy or closure does not mean that the legal system moves as if there was no environment, or that it is not subject to external determination. Moreover, recent Australian developments in the field of family law, separation, and child custody are explored in detail. Although this chapter revolves around the autonomy and closure of law from other sources of cognitive authority, it may be helpful to conclude by reflecting on how this question might need to be seen alongside that of the closure of other communicative systems, or in terms of the limits of legal action.Less
This chapter explores the association between law and sociology in family law against the background of a discussion of Niklas Luhmann's analysis of law's combined operational closure and cognitive openness. For Luhmann, the thought of autonomy or closure does not mean that the legal system moves as if there was no environment, or that it is not subject to external determination. Moreover, recent Australian developments in the field of family law, separation, and child custody are explored in detail. Although this chapter revolves around the autonomy and closure of law from other sources of cognitive authority, it may be helpful to conclude by reflecting on how this question might need to be seen alongside that of the closure of other communicative systems, or in terms of the limits of legal action.
Bruce Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816691005
- eISBN:
- 9781452949406
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816691005.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This book rethinks narrative and media through systems theory. Reconceiving interrelations among subjects, media, significations, and the social, this study demonstrates second-order systems theory’s ...
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This book rethinks narrative and media through systems theory. Reconceiving interrelations among subjects, media, significations, and the social, this study demonstrates second-order systems theory’s potential to provide fresh insights into the familiar topics of media studies and narrative theory. This book offers a synthesis of the neocybernetic theories of cognition formulated by biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, incubated by cyberneticist Heinz von Foerster, and cultivated in Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. From this foundation, it interrogates media theory and narrative theory through a critique of information theory in favor of autopoietic conceptions of cognition. Clarke’s purview includes examinations of novels (Mrs. Dalloway and Mind of My Mind), movies (Avatar, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and even Aramis, Bruno Latour’s idiosyncratic meditation on a failed plan for an automated subway.Less
This book rethinks narrative and media through systems theory. Reconceiving interrelations among subjects, media, significations, and the social, this study demonstrates second-order systems theory’s potential to provide fresh insights into the familiar topics of media studies and narrative theory. This book offers a synthesis of the neocybernetic theories of cognition formulated by biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, incubated by cyberneticist Heinz von Foerster, and cultivated in Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. From this foundation, it interrogates media theory and narrative theory through a critique of information theory in favor of autopoietic conceptions of cognition. Clarke’s purview includes examinations of novels (Mrs. Dalloway and Mind of My Mind), movies (Avatar, Memento, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and even Aramis, Bruno Latour’s idiosyncratic meditation on a failed plan for an automated subway.
Holly Watkins
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226594705
- eISBN:
- 9780226594842
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226594842.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, Philosophy of Music
Chapter 1, “Reanimating Musical Organicism,” revisits the legacy of organicism to discover fresh critical potential in a discourse currently maligned as a relic of Austro-German aesthetic values. ...
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Chapter 1, “Reanimating Musical Organicism,” revisits the legacy of organicism to discover fresh critical potential in a discourse currently maligned as a relic of Austro-German aesthetic values. Even a casual perusal of the primary literature shows that organicism was always beset by internal tensions, many of which stem from the peculiarities of the organisms that typically served as this literature’s inspiration: plants. Touching on figures ranging from Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Theodor Adorno to the music critics Christian Friedrich Michaelis, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Eduard Hanslick, the chapter shows that organicist writings, many of which compared the real-time unfolding of musical works such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde to plant growth, continue to raise questions about the lives and identities of both organisms and artifacts as well as the relationships between these different expressions of vitality. Drawing on the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann, whose conceptual and analytical tools deftly mediate between organic and cultural modes of organization, the chapter offers a series of novel perspectives on the quasi-organic traits of musical form and stylistic change in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music.Less
Chapter 1, “Reanimating Musical Organicism,” revisits the legacy of organicism to discover fresh critical potential in a discourse currently maligned as a relic of Austro-German aesthetic values. Even a casual perusal of the primary literature shows that organicism was always beset by internal tensions, many of which stem from the peculiarities of the organisms that typically served as this literature’s inspiration: plants. Touching on figures ranging from Immanuel Kant, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Theodor Adorno to the music critics Christian Friedrich Michaelis, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Eduard Hanslick, the chapter shows that organicist writings, many of which compared the real-time unfolding of musical works such as Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde to plant growth, continue to raise questions about the lives and identities of both organisms and artifacts as well as the relationships between these different expressions of vitality. Drawing on the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann, whose conceptual and analytical tools deftly mediate between organic and cultural modes of organization, the chapter offers a series of novel perspectives on the quasi-organic traits of musical form and stylistic change in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music.
Ryan White
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171007
- eISBN:
- 9780231539593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171007.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Charles S. Peirce declares that the individual amounts to no more than a “negation.” In this chapter, that remark triggers a comparison of Peirce’s semiotics to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction and ...
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Charles S. Peirce declares that the individual amounts to no more than a “negation.” In this chapter, that remark triggers a comparison of Peirce’s semiotics to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction and Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. In all three cases it is argued that humanist presumptions of communication are abandoned in favor of a posthumanist theory of communication in which human consciousness is totally excluded from participation in systems of communication but instead acts as their occluded environment, the “negation” or exclusion which makes communication possible.Less
Charles S. Peirce declares that the individual amounts to no more than a “negation.” In this chapter, that remark triggers a comparison of Peirce’s semiotics to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction and Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. In all three cases it is argued that humanist presumptions of communication are abandoned in favor of a posthumanist theory of communication in which human consciousness is totally excluded from participation in systems of communication but instead acts as their occluded environment, the “negation” or exclusion which makes communication possible.
Paul Dougan, Fernand Gobet, and Michael King
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199211395
- eISBN:
- 9780191695803
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199211395.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
Niklas Luhmann proposed that different social systems, such as law and science, encode information using different binary codes and programmes. A plausible consequence is that communications within ...
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Niklas Luhmann proposed that different social systems, such as law and science, encode information using different binary codes and programmes. A plausible consequence is that communications within those systems – for example law cases for the law system and academic journal articles for the (social) science system – should have not only different surface structures, for example style and convention, but also different semantic structures. However, it is critical to control the input to the two systems, insofar as this should relate as nearly as possible to identical topics. This chapter presents an empirical study aimed at providing some scientific evidence to support Luhmann's theory about social systems. Measurable and statistically reliable differences were observed in the semantic structure between the law and science systems of communication. The terms related to a particular domain had a higher average weight within the network associated with this domain than with the network associated with the other domain.Less
Niklas Luhmann proposed that different social systems, such as law and science, encode information using different binary codes and programmes. A plausible consequence is that communications within those systems – for example law cases for the law system and academic journal articles for the (social) science system – should have not only different surface structures, for example style and convention, but also different semantic structures. However, it is critical to control the input to the two systems, insofar as this should relate as nearly as possible to identical topics. This chapter presents an empirical study aimed at providing some scientific evidence to support Luhmann's theory about social systems. Measurable and statistically reliable differences were observed in the semantic structure between the law and science systems of communication. The terms related to a particular domain had a higher average weight within the network associated with this domain than with the network associated with the other domain.
Bruce Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816691005
- eISBN:
- 9781452949406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816691005.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter addresses the differences between information theory and autopoietic theory since neither of these discursive traditions can be reduced to the other, nor be merged as one. The term noise ...
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This chapter addresses the differences between information theory and autopoietic theory since neither of these discursive traditions can be reduced to the other, nor be merged as one. The term noise particularly stands out amongst the theories derived from information theory for its investigative potency and intellectual glamour, as seen through Michael Serres’ work. The concept of noise is a central point within postmodernist scientific and cultural paradigms, denoting the unpredictable development of unforeseen orderings. Furthermore, information theory has redefined communication as a problem of transmission. It is also a primary concept in Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, which deems communication as the sole and self-produced product of the operations of social autopoiesis.Less
This chapter addresses the differences between information theory and autopoietic theory since neither of these discursive traditions can be reduced to the other, nor be merged as one. The term noise particularly stands out amongst the theories derived from information theory for its investigative potency and intellectual glamour, as seen through Michael Serres’ work. The concept of noise is a central point within postmodernist scientific and cultural paradigms, denoting the unpredictable development of unforeseen orderings. Furthermore, information theory has redefined communication as a problem of transmission. It is also a primary concept in Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory, which deems communication as the sole and self-produced product of the operations of social autopoiesis.
Peter C. Caldwell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- March 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780198833819
- eISBN:
- 9780191872198
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198833819.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Economic History
The 1970s and 1980s saw two important changes in the West German discussion of the welfare state. First, global trade put direct economic pressure on expensive welfare states in the western world. ...
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The 1970s and 1980s saw two important changes in the West German discussion of the welfare state. First, global trade put direct economic pressure on expensive welfare states in the western world. Second, the social science discussion of the welfare state shifted to a language of systems, which no longer viewed the welfare state as a tool of state or society, but asked about how systems of social policy could have unintended consequences—how social solutions could pose their own problems. Young Marxists, breaking with the SPD, questioned the possibility of a welfare state that could aid workers under capitalism; conservative state theorists questioned whether democracy, with its demands for state solutions, could paralyze the state. The result was a more complex reading of how the modern word created complex challenges for individuals and states alike, especially well articulated in the work of Kaufmann and Luhmann.Less
The 1970s and 1980s saw two important changes in the West German discussion of the welfare state. First, global trade put direct economic pressure on expensive welfare states in the western world. Second, the social science discussion of the welfare state shifted to a language of systems, which no longer viewed the welfare state as a tool of state or society, but asked about how systems of social policy could have unintended consequences—how social solutions could pose their own problems. Young Marxists, breaking with the SPD, questioned the possibility of a welfare state that could aid workers under capitalism; conservative state theorists questioned whether democracy, with its demands for state solutions, could paralyze the state. The result was a more complex reading of how the modern word created complex challenges for individuals and states alike, especially well articulated in the work of Kaufmann and Luhmann.
Richard Nobles
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199282548
- eISBN:
- 9780191700200
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282548.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter explores the implications of sociological theory and systems theory, most particularly as set out in the writings of Niklas Luhmann, for jurisprudence. This theory offers a sociological ...
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This chapter explores the implications of sociological theory and systems theory, most particularly as set out in the writings of Niklas Luhmann, for jurisprudence. This theory offers a sociological account for endless debates amongst and between different schools of jurisprudence on topics such as the origin and/or source of law, the nature of law's determinacy or indeterminacy, and the role of justice. This project aims to extend the work started by Luhmann in his book, Das Recht der Gesellschaft. It also tries to illustrate the explanatory power and sociological enterprise of systems theory by applying it to the writings of Ronald Dworkin, in the context of his debate with analytical positivists, most notably Joseph Raz, on the nature or basis of the unity or identity of law. In addition, it discusses Dworkin's attempt to defuse the tautology and unfold the paradox of law. It is noted that systems theory agrees with Raz by showing that judges have regard towards morality in their decisions, Dworkin has not indicated that morality is part of law.Less
This chapter explores the implications of sociological theory and systems theory, most particularly as set out in the writings of Niklas Luhmann, for jurisprudence. This theory offers a sociological account for endless debates amongst and between different schools of jurisprudence on topics such as the origin and/or source of law, the nature of law's determinacy or indeterminacy, and the role of justice. This project aims to extend the work started by Luhmann in his book, Das Recht der Gesellschaft. It also tries to illustrate the explanatory power and sociological enterprise of systems theory by applying it to the writings of Ronald Dworkin, in the context of his debate with analytical positivists, most notably Joseph Raz, on the nature or basis of the unity or identity of law. In addition, it discusses Dworkin's attempt to defuse the tautology and unfold the paradox of law. It is noted that systems theory agrees with Raz by showing that judges have regard towards morality in their decisions, Dworkin has not indicated that morality is part of law.
Ryan White
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171007
- eISBN:
- 9780231539593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171007.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
In many respects the “thesis statement” of the book as a whole, this chapter attempts to theorize the meaning of paradoxical statements in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Sanders ...
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In many respects the “thesis statement” of the book as a whole, this chapter attempts to theorize the meaning of paradoxical statements in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Sanders Peirce. Utilizing and extending Gregory Bateson’s theory of communication, this essay observes a distinction between content and form which then entails a “second-order” observation as articulated in the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann. Form is theorized as radical discontinuity, a concept without identity, the “double consciousness.” This thesis not only allows Emerson and Peirce to be drawn into the purview of systems theory, but it also discovers an unheralded “posthumanist” tradition in American thought.Less
In many respects the “thesis statement” of the book as a whole, this chapter attempts to theorize the meaning of paradoxical statements in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Sanders Peirce. Utilizing and extending Gregory Bateson’s theory of communication, this essay observes a distinction between content and form which then entails a “second-order” observation as articulated in the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann. Form is theorized as radical discontinuity, a concept without identity, the “double consciousness.” This thesis not only allows Emerson and Peirce to be drawn into the purview of systems theory, but it also discovers an unheralded “posthumanist” tradition in American thought.
Ryan White
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171007
- eISBN:
- 9780231539593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171007.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Contemporary interpretations of the Puritan theology of Jonathan Edwards are often hindered by the implicit assumption of a modern framework that imports either romanticist subjectivity into his ...
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Contemporary interpretations of the Puritan theology of Jonathan Edwards are often hindered by the implicit assumption of a modern framework that imports either romanticist subjectivity into his thought or a strict theological dualism. This chapter argues that the concept of self-reference, a formal condition with a strong precedent in medieval theology, is the key for unlocking this difficulty and showing that the difficult concept of “true virtue” as presented by Edwards is paradoxically achievable only as unachievable. Much like Peirce’s pragmatism and its relationship to reality, Edwards demonstrates that only through self-limitation is an ethical program capable of presenting the possibility for a “true” ethics.Less
Contemporary interpretations of the Puritan theology of Jonathan Edwards are often hindered by the implicit assumption of a modern framework that imports either romanticist subjectivity into his thought or a strict theological dualism. This chapter argues that the concept of self-reference, a formal condition with a strong precedent in medieval theology, is the key for unlocking this difficulty and showing that the difficult concept of “true virtue” as presented by Edwards is paradoxically achievable only as unachievable. Much like Peirce’s pragmatism and its relationship to reality, Edwards demonstrates that only through self-limitation is an ethical program capable of presenting the possibility for a “true” ethics.
Henry Sussman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823232833
- eISBN:
- 9780823241170
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823232833.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Amid radical transformation and rapid mutation in the nature, transmission, and deployment of information and communications, this book offers a status report and theoretically nuanced update on the ...
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Amid radical transformation and rapid mutation in the nature, transmission, and deployment of information and communications, this book offers a status report and theoretically nuanced update on the traditions and medium of the book. What, it asks, are the book's current prospects? The study highlights the most radical experiments in the book's history as trials in what the author terms the Prevailing Operating System at play within the fields of knowledge, art, critique, and science. The investigations of modern systems theory, as exemplified by Gregory Bateson, Anthony Wilden, and Niklas Luhmann, turn out to be inseparable from theoretically astute inquiry into the nature of the book. The author's primary examples of such radical experiments with the history of the book are Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book (both the text and Peter Greenaway's screen adaptation), Stéphane Mallarmé's Un coup de des jamais n'abolira le hasard, Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project, Jacques Derrida's Glas, Maurice Blanchot's Death Sentence, and Franz Kafka's enduring legacy within the world of the graphic novel. In the author's hands, close reading of these and related works renders definitive proof of the book's persistence and vitality. The book medium, with its inbuilt format and program, continues, he argues, to supply the tablet or screen for cultural notation. The perennial crisis in which the book seems to languish is in fact an occasion for readers to realize fully their role as textual producers, to experience the full range of liberty in expression and articulation embedded in the irreducibly bookish process of textual display.Less
Amid radical transformation and rapid mutation in the nature, transmission, and deployment of information and communications, this book offers a status report and theoretically nuanced update on the traditions and medium of the book. What, it asks, are the book's current prospects? The study highlights the most radical experiments in the book's history as trials in what the author terms the Prevailing Operating System at play within the fields of knowledge, art, critique, and science. The investigations of modern systems theory, as exemplified by Gregory Bateson, Anthony Wilden, and Niklas Luhmann, turn out to be inseparable from theoretically astute inquiry into the nature of the book. The author's primary examples of such radical experiments with the history of the book are Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book (both the text and Peter Greenaway's screen adaptation), Stéphane Mallarmé's Un coup de des jamais n'abolira le hasard, Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project, Jacques Derrida's Glas, Maurice Blanchot's Death Sentence, and Franz Kafka's enduring legacy within the world of the graphic novel. In the author's hands, close reading of these and related works renders definitive proof of the book's persistence and vitality. The book medium, with its inbuilt format and program, continues, he argues, to supply the tablet or screen for cultural notation. The perennial crisis in which the book seems to languish is in fact an occasion for readers to realize fully their role as textual producers, to experience the full range of liberty in expression and articulation embedded in the irreducibly bookish process of textual display.
Christopher Hutton
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633500
- eISBN:
- 9780748671489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633500.003.0002
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and Pedagogy
This chapter offers a brief introduction to topics and approaches in legal theory and language. It offers a critical summary of the differences between natural law and legal positivism, describes in ...
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This chapter offers a brief introduction to topics and approaches in legal theory and language. It offers a critical summary of the differences between natural law and legal positivism, describes in outline the formalist position as opposed to the realist, summarizes the idea of the rule of law in liberal ideology, and shows how this idea of the relative autonomy of the legal system and legal language comes under attack in radical approaches to law. It then looks at how the law and economics framework might deal with linguistic questions, and contrasts the different understanding of law and language in Luhmann and Habermas. The fundamental issue at stake is the notion of law's autonomy.Less
This chapter offers a brief introduction to topics and approaches in legal theory and language. It offers a critical summary of the differences between natural law and legal positivism, describes in outline the formalist position as opposed to the realist, summarizes the idea of the rule of law in liberal ideology, and shows how this idea of the relative autonomy of the legal system and legal language comes under attack in radical approaches to law. It then looks at how the law and economics framework might deal with linguistic questions, and contrasts the different understanding of law and language in Luhmann and Habermas. The fundamental issue at stake is the notion of law's autonomy.
Ryan White
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171007
- eISBN:
- 9780231539593
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171007.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
The Hidden God revisits the origins of American pragmatism and finds a nascent “posthumanist” critique shaping early modern thought. By reaching as far back as the Calvinist arguments of the American ...
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The Hidden God revisits the origins of American pragmatism and finds a nascent “posthumanist” critique shaping early modern thought. By reaching as far back as the Calvinist arguments of the American Puritans and their struggle to know a “hidden God,” this book brings American pragmatism closer to contemporary critical theory. Ryan White reads the writings of key American philosophers, including Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Charles Sanders Peirce, against modern theoretical works by Niklas Luhmann, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Sharon Cameron, Cary Wolfe, and Gregory Bateson. This juxtaposition isolates the distinctly posthumanist form of pragmatism that began to arise in these early texts, challenging the accepted genealogy of pragmatic discourse and common definitions of posthumanist critique. Its rigorously theoretical perspective has wide implications for humanities research, enriching investigations into literature, history, politics, and art.Less
The Hidden God revisits the origins of American pragmatism and finds a nascent “posthumanist” critique shaping early modern thought. By reaching as far back as the Calvinist arguments of the American Puritans and their struggle to know a “hidden God,” this book brings American pragmatism closer to contemporary critical theory. Ryan White reads the writings of key American philosophers, including Jonathan Edwards, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William James, and Charles Sanders Peirce, against modern theoretical works by Niklas Luhmann, Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Sharon Cameron, Cary Wolfe, and Gregory Bateson. This juxtaposition isolates the distinctly posthumanist form of pragmatism that began to arise in these early texts, challenging the accepted genealogy of pragmatic discourse and common definitions of posthumanist critique. Its rigorously theoretical perspective has wide implications for humanities research, enriching investigations into literature, history, politics, and art.
Bruce Clarke
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816691005
- eISBN:
- 9781452949406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816691005.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The discourse of cybernetic systems emerges around a functional similarity in the self-regulation of mechanical and organic systems. One result of this parallel development is a tendency for ...
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The discourse of cybernetic systems emerges around a functional similarity in the self-regulation of mechanical and organic systems. One result of this parallel development is a tendency for informatics and cybernetics to get tangled up, their conceptual differences disregarded. This chapter disconnects that entanglement and traces their separation to the early 1970s, when second-order cybernetics and autopoietic systems theory merged to hypothesize a noninformatic conception of cognition. The systems theory that assembles this conceptual progression came to be known as second-order systems theory or Neocybernetics. The chapter cites Niklas Luhmann as a prominent thinker in self-referential systems theory, whose work was influenced by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela’s concept of autopoiesis and Heinz von Foerster’s work in second-order cybernetics.Less
The discourse of cybernetic systems emerges around a functional similarity in the self-regulation of mechanical and organic systems. One result of this parallel development is a tendency for informatics and cybernetics to get tangled up, their conceptual differences disregarded. This chapter disconnects that entanglement and traces their separation to the early 1970s, when second-order cybernetics and autopoietic systems theory merged to hypothesize a noninformatic conception of cognition. The systems theory that assembles this conceptual progression came to be known as second-order systems theory or Neocybernetics. The chapter cites Niklas Luhmann as a prominent thinker in self-referential systems theory, whose work was influenced by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela’s concept of autopoiesis and Heinz von Foerster’s work in second-order cybernetics.
Laurence Claus
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199735099
- eISBN:
- 9780199950478
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199735099.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law, Legal Profession and Ethics
Law lets us live with people we do not know. Law is the way a growing group uses a group language to fulfill its members' need to interact with unknown people. Law tells us what people are likely to ...
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Law lets us live with people we do not know. Law is the way a growing group uses a group language to fulfill its members' need to interact with unknown people. Law tells us what people are likely to do and to expect, just because they are in our group. Law evolves rather than being created. The evolution of our group customs accelerates when we evolve customs of following leaders, that is, customs of treating the sayings of particular people as expressions of new customs or...laws. The recorded sayings of our leaders become a consultable guide to life in our community. The reality of leadership depends upon community response to the assertions of assertive individuals—so-called “charismatic authority” is not a personal possession, it is a psychological dynamic among people in a group. Niklas Luhmann's pioneering vision of law as a self-evolving social system insufficiently distinguishes law as the system of communication about the character of life in law's community and insufficiently accounts for the “variety of laws.” H. L. A. Hart's “fundamental objection” to treating law as all about prediction fails to recognize the way in which law contributes to moral reasoning. Keeping the words we call our law predictive is a moral reason to do what law predicts. We should act on that reason unless we have morally weightier reasons to do differently. Legal rules do not exist to substitute for moral reasoning. Legal rules exist to inform us about each other, about what is likely to be done and expected in our community. Rules are vehicles for understanding each other, and therein lies their moral contribution to our own all-things-considered judgments about what to do.Less
Law lets us live with people we do not know. Law is the way a growing group uses a group language to fulfill its members' need to interact with unknown people. Law tells us what people are likely to do and to expect, just because they are in our group. Law evolves rather than being created. The evolution of our group customs accelerates when we evolve customs of following leaders, that is, customs of treating the sayings of particular people as expressions of new customs or...laws. The recorded sayings of our leaders become a consultable guide to life in our community. The reality of leadership depends upon community response to the assertions of assertive individuals—so-called “charismatic authority” is not a personal possession, it is a psychological dynamic among people in a group. Niklas Luhmann's pioneering vision of law as a self-evolving social system insufficiently distinguishes law as the system of communication about the character of life in law's community and insufficiently accounts for the “variety of laws.” H. L. A. Hart's “fundamental objection” to treating law as all about prediction fails to recognize the way in which law contributes to moral reasoning. Keeping the words we call our law predictive is a moral reason to do what law predicts. We should act on that reason unless we have morally weightier reasons to do differently. Legal rules do not exist to substitute for moral reasoning. Legal rules exist to inform us about each other, about what is likely to be done and expected in our community. Rules are vehicles for understanding each other, and therein lies their moral contribution to our own all-things-considered judgments about what to do.
Clifford Siskin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035316
- eISBN:
- 9780262336345
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035316.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
History is a genre consisting historically of different kinds with different functions. Instead of just writing “a history” of system, we need to recover the changing relationship between these two ...
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History is a genre consisting historically of different kinds with different functions. Instead of just writing “a history” of system, we need to recover the changing relationship between these two genres—starting with Bacon’s emphasis on the need for new histories and Galileo’s focus on system. This chapter follows their interrelations into the eighteenth century using a new computational resource I call Tectonics. It maps spatially over time the coming together of system and history at the century’s end as they share more and more title pages, modifying each other and forming a new platform for knowledge: the narrow-but-deep disciplines of modernity. The chapter confirms this finding using Encyclopedia Britannica and then—with turns to William Jones and the novel--shows how history itself became one of those narrowed disciplines by foregrounding “ideas” and the modern subject that embodies them. The chapter shows how these interrelations of system and history shaped the efforts of system theory, including Immanuel Wallerstein and Niklas Luhmann, and recovers for this book a different kind of history: Bacon’s notion of a capacious literary history that would tell the “story of learning” from age to age. The chapter concludes with Carl Woese’s efforts to transform biology through a newly capacious history, and with explanations of the scope and kinds of history featured in this book: the histories of “mediation,” “blame,” and the “real.”.Less
History is a genre consisting historically of different kinds with different functions. Instead of just writing “a history” of system, we need to recover the changing relationship between these two genres—starting with Bacon’s emphasis on the need for new histories and Galileo’s focus on system. This chapter follows their interrelations into the eighteenth century using a new computational resource I call Tectonics. It maps spatially over time the coming together of system and history at the century’s end as they share more and more title pages, modifying each other and forming a new platform for knowledge: the narrow-but-deep disciplines of modernity. The chapter confirms this finding using Encyclopedia Britannica and then—with turns to William Jones and the novel--shows how history itself became one of those narrowed disciplines by foregrounding “ideas” and the modern subject that embodies them. The chapter shows how these interrelations of system and history shaped the efforts of system theory, including Immanuel Wallerstein and Niklas Luhmann, and recovers for this book a different kind of history: Bacon’s notion of a capacious literary history that would tell the “story of learning” from age to age. The chapter concludes with Carl Woese’s efforts to transform biology through a newly capacious history, and with explanations of the scope and kinds of history featured in this book: the histories of “mediation,” “blame,” and the “real.”.
Paul Rabinow
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226701691
- eISBN:
- 9780226701714
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226701714.003.0007
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
This chapter discusses an experiment in collaborative anthropology. It describes the actual practices of intellectual colaboring and the challenges encountered. The goal of the experiment was to ...
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This chapter discusses an experiment in collaborative anthropology. It describes the actual practices of intellectual colaboring and the challenges encountered. The goal of the experiment was to study problematization in real time and examine it using Niklas Luhmann’s distinction between first- and second-order observations.Less
This chapter discusses an experiment in collaborative anthropology. It describes the actual practices of intellectual colaboring and the challenges encountered. The goal of the experiment was to study problematization in real time and examine it using Niklas Luhmann’s distinction between first- and second-order observations.
Hadar Aviram
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479831548
- eISBN:
- 9781479801800
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479831548.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
In this chapter, Hadar Aviram responds to Sharon Dolovich’s essay with three competing intellectual frameworks. The chapter argues that the classic “legal model,” which views constitutional ...
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In this chapter, Hadar Aviram responds to Sharon Dolovich’s essay with three competing intellectual frameworks. The chapter argues that the classic “legal model,” which views constitutional interpretation as a vehicle for furthering core legal values, naively assumes the neutrality of legal institutions. Conversely, the “socio-empirical approach,” which treats courts as just one of many socio-political institutions that legitimate and reinforce existing structures of power and inequality, grapples inadequately with the nature of law and legal discourse. Aviram argues that Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory make the best sense of both the constitution’s functions and its limitations by conceptualizing law as a closed system of communication. Although it is open to evidence from other systems and seemingly able to assimilate that evidence, law is structurally incapable of getting beyond the limitations of its own reductive legal/illegal dichotomy. For this reason, judicial review is ultimately an ineffective vehicle for resolving the complex challenges that typically give rise to constitutional claims. Systems theory, concludes Aviram, “offers us a modicum of modesty when expecting great things from the courts.”Less
In this chapter, Hadar Aviram responds to Sharon Dolovich’s essay with three competing intellectual frameworks. The chapter argues that the classic “legal model,” which views constitutional interpretation as a vehicle for furthering core legal values, naively assumes the neutrality of legal institutions. Conversely, the “socio-empirical approach,” which treats courts as just one of many socio-political institutions that legitimate and reinforce existing structures of power and inequality, grapples inadequately with the nature of law and legal discourse. Aviram argues that Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory make the best sense of both the constitution’s functions and its limitations by conceptualizing law as a closed system of communication. Although it is open to evidence from other systems and seemingly able to assimilate that evidence, law is structurally incapable of getting beyond the limitations of its own reductive legal/illegal dichotomy. For this reason, judicial review is ultimately an ineffective vehicle for resolving the complex challenges that typically give rise to constitutional claims. Systems theory, concludes Aviram, “offers us a modicum of modesty when expecting great things from the courts.”
