How can ‘Now and So’ be Now and So?
On the Sociological Phenomenology of the System Time
2005 Volume 2005 Issue 18 Pages 252-263
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2005 Volume 2005 Issue 18 Pages 252-263
The aim of this paper is to consider how ‘Now and So’ can be now and so. The theory of social systems as a second order observer observes the phase ‘Now and So’ in system time of a first order observer because it is always a blind spot for the first order observer.
For this purpose, (1) I will formulate the theory of social systems by Niklas Luhmann as “Sociological Phenomenology”: Parallel to consciousnesses, social systems are observed not as things but as subjects in the world. However, (2) contrary to phenomenological sociology, I start not from ‘the problem of meaning is a problem of time’ but from ‘the problem of time is a problem of meaning’. This means that system time is a meaningful construction. Finally, (3) I show that the phase ‘Now and So’ can be now and so through the distinction of past/future. In whole system time, an event as an element of the system can appear and disappear in the present.
