ABSTRACT
Systems theory, it is worth reminding ourselves, covers a broad scientific field. Between the 1940s and the 1990s, a row of different scientific works appeared that provided glimpses of common epistemological ground between communication, biology, mathematics, cybernetics, semiology, and sociology. Due to the level of generalisation and abstraction, and lack of immediate links to emancipatory hopes, many have decided not to invest in this line of epistemology. I have chosen to do so, because I believe in the fundamental question asked by systems theoreticians: What would happen if we provide concepts like “observation”, “communication” and “difference” with the same central status as that of “causality” in scientific work? This chapter presents a basic outline of an operative systems theory. The primary source of my inspiration has been the works of the German sociologist Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998). (Baecker, Dirk (2005, 2016) Schlüsselwerke der Systemtheori. Wiesbaden: Springer Verlag.)
