In his seminal essay on the question ‘How Can the Mind Participate in Communication’, Niklas Luhmann stated: ‘The autopoiesis of social systems is nothing more than this constant process of reduction and opening of connective Possibilities’ (Luhmann 2002, 172).
This programmatic pronouncement about society as an evolutionary process of couplings and decouplings is made in the context of an outline of Luhmann’s theory of the connection between (human) minds and society.
Different from the classical philosophical mind–body problem, which questions if and how the physical and intellectual aspects of human life are integrated with one another, Luhmann, the sociologist, is primarily concerned with what could be called the mind–society problem: How is society related to (human) consciousness? Or, put differently: To what degree is society connected with what humans think, feel or intend?
Luhmann’s radically ‘anti-humanist’ answer to the mind–society problem is one of the most controversial elements of his theory: Operationally speaking, minds and society are not connected. As an encompassing system of communication, society consists of communicative operations. Minds, on the other hand, consist of mental operations. Neither kind of communication can connect directly with the other: In order to continue its respective autopoiesis, a mind needs to think or feel, and society needs to communicate; there is no operational link between the two. As Luhmann succinctly stated: ‘Humans cannot communicate; not even their brains can communicate; not even their conscious minds can communicate. Only Communication Can Communicate’ (Luhmann 2002, 169).
This radical operational difference, that is, the radical operational closure of both psychic and social systems, does not mean that these two systemic realms are not connected at all. They are in each other’s environment and structurally coupled. Human thought operates in a social environment of communication – we think, for instance, about what we read and hear – and society operates within the environment of human thought – what is said or written often emerges in the context of someone’s thoughts and feelings. Without mental operations, this article could not be written and neither could we have academic journals. Both society and thought make use of Language, and thus the common medium of language is the basis of the tight Structural Coupling, or, to speak with a biological metaphor, of the Symbiosis, between minds and society.
While Luhmann’s concept of Structural Coupling does connect minds and society, the concept of Operational Closure still subverts a traditional idealistic assumption and aspiration that is almost considered common sense even until today, namely that society either is or ought to be guided by human reason. Social Institutions are still often conceived of as grounded in human ideas. The law, for instance, can be understood as the result of the human endeavour to make society more just; similarly, the academic system can be understood as a social manifestation of the human desire for knowledge.
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MOELLER, Hans-Georg and D’AMBROSIO, Paul J., 2019. Sincerity, authenticity and profilicity: Notes on the problem, a vocabulary and a history of identity. Philosophy & Social Criticism. 1 June 2019. Vol. 45, no. 5, p. 575–596. DOI 10.1177/0191453718799801.