Similar epistemological assumptions can be found in radical constructivism which holds that social actors act by observing the social world. Subsequently a theoretical description of the social world must be located on the level of second order observation. Luhmann's systems theory, therefore, is grounded in a philosophy of second order logic which makes ist difficult to capture his work with common sociological and even philosophical understanding. Against the epistemological background of second order theory he showes the basic feature of socially differentiated modern society. This has many implications.
Social systems are autopietic systems.
This is a break with conventional thinking in social sciences. It can be said that Luhmann's system theory as a whole is a break with conventional thinking. Luhmann consequently created a theory based on the theoretical concept of social communication. This and numerous other fundamentally new concepts in social theory intodruced by Niklas Luhmann are far from being commonly accepted in the discipline. First of all, he challenged the disciplin and affected fruitful theoretical discussions in the field of sociology and beyond.