Relationship between Reflexivity in Functional Systems and Science as a Functional System: Toward Analysis of the Internal Structure of Functional Systems

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between reflexivity in functional systems and science as a functional system from the viewpoint of functional differentiation. We discuss the internal structure of functional systems and the complicated relationship with reference to the hypercycle theory of the German legal scholar and sociologist Gunther Teubner. The findings of the present study provide insights useful for analysis of the internal structures of functional systems, and the construction of theories explaining how scientific disciplines formed in the context of social theory.