GERST 6190 - [Introduction to Systems Theory]

(crosslisted) COML 6185

Fall or Spring. Not offered: 2023-2024. Next offered: 2024-2025. 3 credits. Student option grading.

All readings will be available in English.

P. Gilgen.

Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory is one of the great theoretical edifices of the last few decades. Ostensibly a sociological theory, Luhmann’s work arguably has had its most disruptive, and most enduring, influence in the humanities. On the basis of his Introduction to Systems Theory, this course will provide a thorough examination of Luhmann’s theoretical edifice and its theoretical building blocks, such as Talcott Parsons’s systems theory, Heinz von Foerster’s second-order cybernetics, George Spencer Brown’s “calculus of decision,” Gregory Bateson’s theory of information, and Humberto Maturana’s concept of autopoiesis. In addition, we will follow the development of Luhmann’s own theory and analyze closely several of Luhmann’s other texts, such as Observations of Modernity, Ecological Communication, Love as Passion, and The Reality of the Mass Media.