ルーマンの社会理論における〈社会〉の位置

抄録

　In the traditional mainstream of sociological theory, there are many controversial concepts and notions; such as 'action', 'organization', 'group', and so on. Especially, 'society' or 'Gesellschaft' is very polemical, because it reflects the theoretical diversitiy of perspectives; moreover, even though not directly mentioned, it is perceived by each way of theory construction itself.
　This essay tries to summarize some of interesting arguments of Niklas Luhmann in respect to the concept 'Gesellschaft'. With the theory of autopoietic-selfreferential systems, Luhmann describes operations and arrangements of functional subsystems that are differentiated Causdifferenziert') in modern society, and presents an image of 'Gesellschaft'. Luhamnn's analysis reminds us of the theory of the 'innere Eigengesetzlichkeit der einzelnen Spharen' by Max Weber. It seems that Luhamnn attempts to take over Weber's idea of the 'Eigengesetzlichkeit' and reformulate it. 'Code', 'program', and their co-operation, for instance, explain how social subsystems are closed and open at the same time with relation to their environments.
　Based on this framework, 'Gesellschaft' is described as the social system, under which subsystems are exposed to a sort of competitive relation, each representing the unity of the society. This implies that Luhmann's theory itself also belongs to only one of these systems, that is, the scientific system, but its seemingly negative status is not always negative, because the 'sociological observation' proves to be possible under the very condition.