Luhmann's Communication-Theoretical Specification of the 'Genomena' of Husserl's Phenomenology

Abstract

From the perspective of cultural studies and critical theory, Luhmann's communication-theoretical approach in sociology can still be read as a meta-biology: while biologists take the development of life as a given, Luhmann tends to treat the development of meaning as a cultural given. Meaning is no longer considered as constructed in communication, but meaning processing precedes and controls communication as an independent variable. Habermas appreciates Luhmann's distinction between psychic and social systems, but he challenges us to bring the critique of metaphysical issues (of providing meaning to events in a dialectics) back into this metabiological perspective that processes meaning without intentionality, that is, as a scientistic objectivation.