| The German contemporary social theorist Niklas Luhmann continues Parsons’ theoretical ambition to work on the integration of social theory,aiming to provide a general theoretical foundation for all social sciences,which is the theory of social systems.Modern philosophical epistemologies,especially the rise of constructivist epistemology,together with the formulation of the autopoietic theory of living systems,have provided abundant theoretical resources for Luhmann’s theory of systems.Luhmann’s theory of social systems is based on a constructivist epistemology,which is based on an operational constructivism with the logic of observation theory and the reasoning of theoretical techniques.Luhmann develops a new theory of the system and its operating structure,in which the system distinguishes itself from its environment by taking the system/environment distinction as the starting point,and carries out a self-referential closed operation and Autopoiesis.It is open to its environment in terms of observation.The system is simultaneously positive and cognitively constructive,operating autopoietic by observing the world and itself,and constructing itself in a recursive autopoiety.By applying the general system theory based on constructivism to the theoretical construction of social description,Luhmann forms a theory of social systems without normative basis,which has a new significance to sociological enlightenment.In the process of studying social systems,Luhmann attempts to make a further abstraction and proposes a new general system theory.The fields to which this system can be applied include social systems,psychological(consciousness)systems,neural(biological)systems,etc.For the individual consciousness system,the perception of society is a constructive description of the individual consciousness system.The important thing is not the real world to be described,but the constructed reality of the "description of the real world by the consciousness system".Thus,in the perspective of this theory,the "individual" is not a system,but an environment of several systems,such as consciousness systems and social systems.Luhmann’s social systems theory takes the whole world of social systems and their environment as the object of the theory,the society is a sequence of functioning with communication as an element.Modern society has undergone functional differentiation,forming a pluricentric versus a plural chakra society.The greatest threat to modernity that Luhmann worries about is not the relativity and uncertainty brought about by difference and contingency,but rather any kind of de-differentiated unity of effort.The philosophical foundation of Luhmann’s systems theory is a simple realism that "systems are real" and a constructivist epistemology that systems are self-generated.The constructivist positivism that it upholds is simple and reveals the constructive reality of individuals and societies in the real world.This theory is of great significance for enriching and developing the Marxist theory of social organism and the principles of dialectical materialism.However,Luhmann’s theory of systems presupposes a de-normative position,which also lets it lose the value dimension and fails to present the value dimension of human and society in the real world,and thus also loses the strength of social criticism.Meanwhile,Marxist practical philosophy and social critical thought,based on the scientific analysis of society,always grasp the deep connection between human and society,and focus on the free development of human beings and the emancipation of all human beings,which has an important value for the theory of social systems. |
