Luhmann recast dehumanized systemic control as a solution, not a crisis

Evidence

According to this theory, a form of control of complex social systems that was neither intellectually, morally nor emotionally integrated and lay beyond individual minds was not a disaster or a dreadful plight that needed to be changed, but instead an appropriate way of overcoming the problems of highly developed industrial societies. Luhmann was a model embodiment of a contemporary form of conservative positivism, or positivist conservatism, and his debates with Habermas were an uninterrupted continuation of those of the 1960s. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 616

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘positivist conservatism’ as Luhmann’s position: control beyond individual minds is functional, not pathological.
• XREF: Connects to the Habermas-Luhmann method dispute and the positivist dispute over value-freedom documented earlier in the book.
• DEEPTHINKING: Reframes the entire Habermas-Luhmann antagonism: systems theory’s amorality is presented as an answer rather than a surrender, which is genuinely hard to summarize.