ABSTRACT
This chapter constitutes Freitag's contribution to the debate over the nature of contemporary society, a debate that goes back (at least) to Lyotard's La condition postmoderne. The various key categories through which modern societies constituted themselves (politics, economics, art, public/private, science, transcendental individualism, etc.) are examined to document a radical rupture with modern developments proper, the reflexive orientation of societies being replaced by automatic mechanisms to which they now adapt piecemeal. In toto, these changes culminate in a new mode of reproduction characterised by its pragmatic and problem-solving nature, whereby society and individuals lose their synthetic character. The trend at present is for society to become a system, and for individuals to fit in un-reflexively.
