Do shared norms matter in international relations? Psychic operational closure means we cannot share thoughts; we can only share language. Ideas cannot be shared. Thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc., must be translated into meaningful communication within a social system. Norms are not ideas, but rather expectations.
Category: Double Contingency
Regulating conflict in the temporal dimension
Systems have developed ways of managing conflict. For instance, a psychic system may experience conflict when incompatible desires arise at … More
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 others.
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
Social Systems Theory 