In contemporary Second-Order Observation, as opposed to its earlier predecessors, it is understood that there is no final verdict, no overarching consensus, no ultimate end, and no single “grand perspective” that includes all others.
According to Luhmann, this was not yet the case in the old world. Here, or in what he calls “the classical theory,” “a common given world was presupposed in the form of nature or creation”. Second-order observation did exist—people would inform themselves about the world, for instance, by listening to what priests or people who could read would tell them—but this did not necessarily result in critical reflections on why people were told what they were told, or in realizing a multiplicity of perspectives.
In contemporary all-pervasive second-order observation, it is well understood that more and more information does not lead to a complete and final set of information but, to the contrary, to an increasingly diverse multiplicity of information. More and more incompatible perspectives arise. Complexity increases to the extent that one realizes that under conditions of second-order observation we will never get to see “the full picture”—simply because there is none. You cannot read the internet to the end. It has no final page.
~
MOELLER, Hans-Georg and D’AMBROSIO, Paul J., 2021. You and Your Profile: Identity After Authenticity. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-19601-7, p. 46.