Normativity's Re-entry. Niklas Luhmann's Social Systems Theory: Society and Law

Abstract

Modern Western society is perceived as increasingly complex and contingent and in an era wherein our own identity is a matter of construction, the macro level of a description of societal unity constitutes a no less demanding task. Despite social complexity and contingency, societies are still in one way or another perceived and described as unities and it appears that normatvity in general and law in particular play an important role. This is the perspective of this research. Niklas Luhmann's social systems theoretical account of society is considered as a plausible theoretical offer and therefore the central problem is formulated as follews: does Luhmann's approach account for the unity of modern Western society and the role normative aspects play in the observation and description of society? After inventarizing criticisms of Luhmann's theory of society, the author concluded that the common ground of these criticsms pertains to the operational closure of social systems. As a consequence, the applicability and consistency of Luhmann's theory of society became a topic of discussion. In this light, 2 research questions were formulated, both regarding the demarction of 2 specific social systems: society and law. It was argued that Luhmann's theory of society offers sufficient concepts to describe the demarcation of society and law but that these were not informative with regard to the unity of concrete and specific societies. To achieve an adequate description of societal unity, the introcdution of organizing principles or normativity into the description of society is necessary. This is illustrated by means of the concept of 'certainty'.