The Concept of Society
In: Thesis eleven: critical theory and historical sociology, Heft 31, S. 67-80
ISSN: 0725-5136
The concepts of communication & system are used to present a new conceptualization of society. George Spencer Brown's conceptual scheme of systems (Laws and Form, New York, 1979), which presupposes time & explains itself through time in a fashion similar to G. W. F. Hegel's logic, is drawn on to clarify the concept of society that views it, & autological concepts like it, as an operatively closed autopoietic system. The concept of communication is then introduced, arguing that it should be the basis for a reconceptualization of society that would switch the emphasis of sociological theory from action to system. This reconceptualization enables the social system (society) to be presented as an operatively closed system consisting only of its own operations, which are reproduced by communications. Thus, a new, more transparent, formulation of society is given: it is the comprehensive system of all communications, which reproduce themselves through the recursive network of communications, which produce new communications. This definition is used to explore the relation of the self to society, & the issue of freedom vs order in systems. 5 References. W. Howard