There is no self-description of modern society without at least implicit reference to functional differentiation. The distinction of function systems such as the political system, economy, science, art, or religion, is therefore explicitly regarded as a key concept of modernity (Leydesdorff, 2002; Berger, 2003; Vanderstraeten, 2005; Brier, 2006; Kjaer, 2010; Bergthaller & Schinko, 2011; Jönhill, 2012; Schirmer & Hamadek, 2007; Schoeneborn et al., 2014; Roth, 2015a). Due to functional differentiation, modern man talks business, avoids politics or religion in leisurely conversation, considers the buying or selling of political or legal decisions as corruption, and, more often than not, tends to associate the imposition of religious imperatives upon scientific knowledge with a revival of the age of the Holy Inquisition (Steffen Roth and Anton Schütz. “Ten Systems: Toward a Canon of Function Systems.” Cybernetics and Human Knowing. Vol. 22 (2015), no. 4, 2015)
This is a great opening paragraph. I highly recommend the article.
7 comments