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Instructors: Prof. Dr. rer. soc. Dirk Baecker
Event type:
Seminar
Org-unit: Graduate School | ZUGS
Displayed in timetable as:
Credits:
4,0
Location:
Campus der Zeppelin Universität
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
5 | 15
Course content:
The PhD course attempts to introduce into systems theory both as general theory of systems and as sociological theory of social systems. We look at control theory (W. Ross Ashby), complexity studies (Warren Weaver), autopoiesis (Humberto R. Maturana), and second-order cybernetics (Heinz von Foerster) to understand how Niklas Luhmann developed his theory of operationally closed social systems consisting of events of communication to enable contacts of the most transitory up to more durable types. Systems draw distinctions to distinguish between themselves and their environment. The produce, and reproduce as, operations. Older terminologies of parts and wholes, or else elements and relations are bygone, even if they still help to understand the newer terminology of boundaries and operations. We will look at the calculus of indications (George Spencer-Brown) to understand the "form" of distinction and we will discuss systems theory as a possible contribution to "transformative" or design research (Herbert A. Simon).
Further information about the exams:
Short paper
100 % attendance
Mandatory literature:
Baecker, Dirk (2017): Systems in Social Theory, in: Monika Krause, Claudio Benzecry, and Isaac Ariail Reed (eds.), Social Theory Now, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 201–226.
Luhmann, Niklas (1995): Social Systems, transl. John Bednarz, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Simon, Herbert A. (1969): The Science of Design – Creating the Artificial, in: ders., The Sciences of the Artificial, 3. Aufl., Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996, S. 111–167.
Spencer-Brown, George (1969): Laws of Form, fifth, intern. ed., Leipzig: Bohmeier, 2008.
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