Luhmann, Niklas, 1927-1998

Niklas Luhmann (; German: [ˈluːman]; December 8, 1927 – November 11, 1998) was a German sociologist, philosopher of social science, and systems theorist. Niklas Luhmann is one of the most influential German sociologists of the 20th century. His thinking was based on the philosophical tradition and at the same time the reception of a wide variety of concepts from modern science. From this foundation he developed a functionalist-oriented systems theory, which claims to be able to describe all social phenomena in a theoretically consistent language. Social systems are understood as communication contexts that have autonomy from the actors involved in them. On this basis, three types of social systems can be distinguished: interaction, organization and society. On his general theory he developed a social theory, which describes modern society as a global society that is characterized by an internal differentiation into various autonomously working functional areas such as politics, law, economics, science, religion and art. According to Luhmann, their operations can not be coordinated centrally.