Observing Complexity: Systems Theory and Postmodernity
by William Rasch contributions by Cary Wolfe
University of Minnesota Press, 2000 Cloth: 978-0-8166-3297-8 | Paper: 978-0-8166-3298-5 Library of Congress Classification B831.2.O27 2000 Dewey Decimal Classification 003
TOC
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Systems Theory and the Politics of Postmodernity
Rasch,
William
Wolfe,
Cary
I.
SYSTEMS THEORY AND/OR POSTMODERNISM? HISTORICAL, POLITICAL, AND ETHICAL FRAMES
1.
Why Does Society Describe Itself as Postmodern?
Luhmann,
Niklas
2.
No Exit? (Response to Luhmann)
Hohendahl,
Peter Uwe
3.
Pre- and Post-Dialectical Materialisms: Modeling Praxis without Subjects and Objects
Levinson,
Marjorie
4.
Immanent Systems, Transcendental Temptations, and the Limits of Ethics
Rasch,
William
5.
Rethinking the Beyond within the Real (Response to Rasch)
Cornell,
Drucilla
II.
OF REALISM AND RECURSIVITY: SYSTEMS THEORY AND THE POSTMODERN EPISTEME
6.
Theory of a Different Order: A Conversation with Katherine Hayles and Niklas Luhmann
Luhmann,
Niklas
Hayles,
N. Katherine
Rasch,
William
Knodt,
Eva
Wolfe,
Cary
7.
Making the Cut: The Interplay of Narrative and System, or What Systems Theory Can't See
Hayles,
N. Katherine
8.
In Search of Posthumanist Theory: The Second-Order Cybernetics of Maturana and Varela
Wolfe,
Cary
III.
SYSTEMS THEORY IN RESONANCE WITH MAJOR POSTMODERNISTS
9.
The Limit of Modernity: Luhmann and Lyotard on Exclusion
Rasch,
William
10.
Blinded Me with Science: Motifs of Observation and Temporality in Lacan and Luhmann
Elmer,
Jonathan
11.
Making Contingency Safe for Liberalism: The Pragmatics of Epistemology in Rorty and Luhmann