Paper's abstract

Jean Clam, About Niklas Luhmann. Pitfalls of Meaning, Dynamic of Structures
The article is a presentation of the studies in historical semantics which represent an important and poorly known corpus in Luhmann's work. The program of these semantica is to grasp, in their diachronic dimension, the processes of functional differentiation of modern societies sine their emergence. The thesis is that semantic evolutions and evolutions of the social structure are closely tied. The article dwells upon the most recent studies to give an idea of the way Luhmann implements his semantic program. All of the proposed angles of vision (upon nature, politics, love, culture) converge in the figure of a sociology of knowledge whose central statement is that of the paradoxical nature of a social communication which has no reference outside itself.

Key Words : Germany, Luhmann
t. 43, 1999 : p. 361-378

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