Luhmann's Theory of Knowledge: An Outline of the Ontoepistemology of Social Systems

Abstract

The article investigates the German thinker Niklas Luhmann's theory of knowledge. We follow the development of his epistemological conceptions from his early project on sociological enlightenment to the late phase of his social systems theory. In the early period of his theoretical endeavor, Luhmann offers a critique of the Enlightenment model of reason, which is based on the teleological necessity of progress and immutability of its laws. In the later period, Luhmann develops the ontoepistemology of social systems and succeeds in fully justifying the importance of the groundlessness of all knowledge and provides some suggestions as to how it is still possible – despite the postmodern condition – to make binding and universal judgments.