Conditional, functional programming renders power universal yet bounded

Evidence

In such circumstances power can be symbolized better, for example, as ‘decision’ rather than as ‘will’. Functional specification and conditional programming – connections which can be tied together by ‘in so far as’ and ‘whenever’ formulations – are particularly suitable for articulating a universalistic power claim. At the same time they make it clear that power which must be claimed for unknown situations and be guaranteed in advance is in no way absolute or unlimited power. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 670

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains how ‘decision’ rather than ‘will’ symbolizes power in universalistic codes, plus the ‘in so far as’ / ‘whenever’ conditional programming Luhmann has in mind.
• XREF: connects to: Formal logic neutralizes contradiction and serves prediction and control — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 525; Computational universality is a code totality that evades languages’ lived drama; Blocking formal entrenchment hydraulically increases functional substitutes — Daryl Levinson and Benjamin I. Sachs, Political Entrenchment and Public Law, 431