Systems have developed ways of managing conflict. For instance, a psychic system may experience conflict when incompatible desires arise at … More
Category: Double Contingency
Double Contingency and Value Consensus
Differences in fundamental values or norms, or lack of consensus, do not necessarily prevent communication, which means lack of consensus does not block the emergence
Subordinating structure to function
In the Forward the English translation of Social Systems, Eva M. Knodt writes, What distinguishes the systems-theoretical approach to communication from semiological, hermeneutic, and action-theoretical
Chekhov’s Ivanoff and the inability to understand oneself or others
In Chekhov’s comedy Ivanoff (sometimes written as Ivanov), revised and first performed in St. Petersburg in 1889, Chekhov explores the impossibility of understanding oneself or
Eudora Welty and Double Contingency
Eudora Welty’s central theme in all of her work might be the separation that lies between human minds. One person can never know precisely what
Stratification, functional differentiation, and double contingency
I’ve written a lot about expectations on this blog because they are central to Luhmann’s theoretical work. For instance, memory is not some kind of
