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Takashi Iba
Social Systems Theory#3 Media and Code for Communication
Associate ProfessorFaculty of Policy ManagementKeio University
Social Systems Theory 2012
Reflection
“How is social order possible?”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.3, p.116, l.22
the nexus of consciousness
Psychic System
the nexus of consciousness
Psychic System
the nexus of consciousness
Psychic System
Each system is operationally closed(Consciousness cannot be imported / exported to another system).
Communication
Information
Utterance
Understanding
(contingent)(contingent) (contingent)
Communication
Actor A Actor B
Expectation of the decisionof Actor B
Perception of little movement of others help themto expect the other’ s decision.
Expectation of the decisionof Actor A
Double Contingency
Social Systems Theory 2012
Class #2 Keywords
Double Contingency
Actor A Actor B
Expectation of the decisionof Actor B
Each Actor cannot make decision because it is depend on the alter’ s decision.
? ?? ?
Expectation of the decisionof Actor A
Talcott Parsons thought ...
Actor A Actor B
Expectation of the decisionof Actor B
Shared Norm or Culture helps them to expectthe others decision.
Expectation of the decisionof Actor A
Shared Norm / Culture
Niklas Luhmann thought ...
Actor A Actor B
Expectation of the decisionof Actor B
Perception of little movement of others help themto expect the other’ s decision.
Expectation of the decisionof Actor A
Communication
Information
Utterance
Understanding
(contingent)(contingent) (contingent)
as the synthesis of three selections: information, utterance, and understanding
Communication
What is uttered
Why it is uttered
Communication-Centered Viewpoint(Not Human-Centered)
Mission-Driven Dialogue Book Reading
Social Systems Theory 2012
Today’s First Dialogue
What do you thinkwhen reading these books?
Mission-Driven Dialogue Book Reading
Social Systems Theory 2012
Improbability ofReaching
Three Kinds ofMedia
Three Kinds ofImprobabilities
Social Systems Theory 2012
Class #3 Keywords
Improbability of Understanding
?
Improbability ofSuccess
language
Information
Utterance
Understanding
languagecommunication
Information
Utterance
Understanding
symbolically generalizedcommunication media
communication
media of dissemination
Information
Utterance
Understanding
Improbability of Reaching
communication
Mission-Driven Dialogue Book Reading
Social Systems Theory 2012
Communication
Information
Utterance
Understanding
(contingent)(contingent) (contingent)
as the synthesis of three selections: information, utterance, and understanding
Communication
What is uttered
Why it is uttered
Three Kind of Improbabilities
Improbable
Overcoming Improbabilities
“Seen in the context of evolutionary achievements, communicative success is exceedingly improbable. Communication presupposes beings that exist independently, with their own environments and their own information-processing apparatuses. Every being sifts and processes what he perceives for himself. Under such circumstances, how is communication, that is, coordinated selectivity, possible at all?”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.157, l.30
the nexus of consciousness
Psychic System
the nexus of consciousness
Psychic System
Each system is operationally closed(Consciousness cannot be imported / exported to another system).
Improbability of Understanding
Improbability of Understanding
?
“At the zero point of evolution, it is, first of all, improbable that ego understands what alter means-given that their bodies and minds are separate and individual. Only in context can meaning be understood, and context is, initially, supplied by one's own perceptual field and memory.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.158, l.12
Improbability ofReaching
Improbability of Reaching
“The second improbability refers to reaching the addressee. It is improbable for a communication to reach more persons than are present in a concrete situation... The problem lies in spatial and temporal extension.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.158, l.22
Improbability ofSuccess
Improbability of Success
“The third improbability is success. Even if a communication is understood by the person it reaches, this does not guarantee that itis also accepted and followed.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.158, l.35
“Communication is successful only if ego accepts the content selected by the communication (the information) as a premise of his own behavior. Acceptance can mean action corresponding to the directives communicated, but also experience, thinking, or processing further information under the assumption that certain information is correct. Communicative success is the successful coupling of selections.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.158, l.38
Three Kind of Improbabilities
Improbability of Understanding
?
Improbability ofReaching
Improbability ofSuccess
“These three improbabilities are not only obstructions to the reception of any given communication, not only difficulties in attaining a goal; they operate as thresholds of discouragement. Anyone who believes that communication is hopeless lets it pass. Thus one must expect that communication as such does not occur, or if it does occur, that it will be eliminated in the further course of evolution.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.159, l.6
“The immanent improbabilities of the communicative process and the way in which they are overcome and transformed into probabilities regulate the construction of social systems.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.159, l.17
Today’s Second Dialogue
What are three kinds of improbabilities on communication?
Improbability of Understanding
?
Improbability ofReaching
Improbability ofSuccess
“We would like to call media the evolutionary achievements that enter at those possible breaks in communication and that serve in a functionally adequate way to transform what is improbable into what is probable. Corresponding to the three types of communicative improbability, one can distinguish three different media that mutually enable one another, limit one another, and burden one another with consequent problems.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.160, l.14
ways oftransforming
what is improbableinto
what is probable
media
Three Kinds of Media
Three Kinds of Media
1. Language
2. Media of dissemination
3. Symbolically generalized communication media
Language
language
Information
Utterance
Understanding
languagecommunication
“The medium that increases, the understandability of communication beyond the sphere of perception is language. Language is a medium distinguished by the use of signs. It uses acoustic or optical signs for meaning.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.160, l.20
“this concerns a very special technique with the function of extending the repertoire of understandable communication almost indefinitely in practice and thereby guaranteeing that almost any random event can appear and be processed as information.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.160, l.31
Media of dissemination
media of dissemination
Information
Utterance
Understanding
Improbability of Reaching
communication
“As a result of language, media of dissemination, namely, writing, printing, and electronic broadcasting, have developed.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.161, l.1
“These developments in language and dissemination techniques make it even more doubtful which communication will succeed and be able to motivate acceptance.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.161, l.14
Symbolically generalized communication media
Information
Utterance
Understanding
symbolically generalizedcommunication media
communication
“Success ... lay ... in the development of symbolically generalized communication media, which are functionally adequate to this particular problem.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.161, l.21
“We would like to call "symbolically generalized" the media that use generalizations to symbolize the nexus between selection and motivation, that is, represent it as a unity.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.161, l.25
“Important examples are: truth, love, property / money, power / law; and also, in rudimentary form, religious belief, art, and, today, standardized "basic values." ”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.161, l.27
“In all these cases this in a very different way and for very different interactive constellations is a matter of conditioning the selection of communication so that it also works as a means of motivation, that is, so that it can adequately secure acceptance of the proposed selection.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.161, l.30
“The most successful and most relevant communication in contemporary society is played out through these media of communication, and accordingly, the chances of forming social systems are directed toward the corresponding functions.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.161, l.34
“One has to understand the process of sociocultural evolution as the reshaping and widening of the chances for foreseeable communication, as the consolidation of expectations out of which society can form its social systems.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.159, l.20
“Language, media of dissemination, and symbolically generalized communication media are thus evolutionary achievements that interdependently ground the processing of information and increase what can be produced by social communication. This is how society produces and reproduces itself as a social system.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.162, l.3
language
Information
Utterance
Understanding
languagecommunication
Information
Utterance
Understanding
symbolically generalizedcommunication media
communication
media of dissemination
Information
Utterance
Understanding
Improbability of Reaching
communication
Three Kinds of Media
“Once communication is set into and kept in motion, the formation of a bounded social system cannot be avoided, nor can the development of further bounded social systems produced by the transformation of expectations about what is improbable into what is sufficiently probable. On the level of social systems, this is an exclusively autopoietic process, which produces what enables it itself.”
N. Luhmann, Social Systems, Stanford University Press, 1996 Chap.4, p.162, l.7
Overcoming Improbabilities
Three Kinds of Media1. Language2. Media of dissemination3. Symbolically generalized communication media
Today’s Third Dialogue
What are three kinds of media for overcoming improbabilities on communication?
Improbability ofReaching
Three Kinds ofMedia
Three Kinds ofImprobabilities
Social Systems Theory 2012
Class #3 Keywords
Improbability of Understanding
?
Improbability ofSuccess
language
Information
Utterance
Understanding
languagecommunication
Information
Utterance
Understanding
symbolically generalizedcommunication media
communication
media of dissemination
Information
Utterance
Understanding
Improbability of Reaching
communication
Social Systems Theory 2012
Preview
Code A / Non-A
Program
ex.Mass Media: information / non-information Economy: payment / non-paymentLaw: legal / non-legal (illegal)Science: true / non-true (false)
Code and Program for function system
ex.Programs used by Mass Media - News - Entertainment - Advertising (code: information / non-information)
Economy Law
Education
Art Religion
Mass Media
PoliticsAcademics
Society(Social System)
Functional Differentiation of Modern Society
