Luhmann's Systems Theory/Postmodernism/Literature

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Niklas Luhmann's systems thinking goes beyond Parsonian functionalism and evolves in the late 1970s and early 1980s into his systems theory with its boundaries between system and environment. His adoption of autopoiesis from biology increases the chance of a paradigm shift from modernity to postmodernity. As his autopoietic (social) systems are communication of difference, his Systems Theory operates as a framework that embraces both the modern or Parsonian functionalism as well as deconstructive (postmodern) elements. Although his social systems are communication of information, utterance and understanding, some critics have criticized the fact that communication is the fundamental concept of the system because communication cannot be a permanent and conceptual constituent in the system. Despite their criticisms, his social system offers a framework in which the communicative act is performed. This holistic system of Luhmann's includes postmodern elements in Wittgenstein's language games and Lyotard's differend. On the surface, paradoxical constituents of Luhmann's system seem to mar the holistic concept of the system. On the other hand, these paradoxical constituents offer some possibilities of overcoming the great divide between the modern epistemology and the postmodern one. As the modern epistemologists argue against the deconstructionists on a logocentric subject for any understanding, the scholars of both camps cannot reach any agreement. Granting such keen confrontations, Luhmann's Systems Theory offers an option to include both holistic and fragmentary constituents. In this context, Luhmann constructs a frame or system of embracing differences. It is appropriate to say that Luhmann's Systems Theory offers a way to understand human and social phenomena in the age of postmodernity and beyond.