Theories of Distinction
Subtitle: Redescribing the Descriptions of Modernity (Cultural Memory in the Present)
Contributors: William Rasch (Editor)
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: February 1, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780804741224
Subjects: Phenomenology & Existentialism; Social theory; Sociology - General; Philosophy; Sociology; Social Science / Sociology / General; Participant observation; Knowledge, Sociology of; Social sciences
Description: Publisher description: The essays in this volume formulate what is considered to be the preconditions for an adequate theory of modern society. The first two essays deal with the modern European philosophical and scientific tradition. The next four essays concern the notion of observation as defined by Luhmann. They examine the history of paradox as a logical problem and as a historically conditioned feature of rhetoric; deconstruct the thinking of Jacques Derrida; discuss the usefulness of Spencer Brown's Laws of Form; and assess the consequences of observation and paradox for epistemology. The following essays present Luhmann's theory of communication and his articulation of the difference between thought and communication, a difference that makes clear one of Luhmann's most radical and controversial theses, that the individual not only does not form the basic element of society but is excluded from it altogether, situated instead in the environment of the social system.