This paper uses the occasion of a short passage on causality in Luhmann’s “Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft” to define constructivism not as a firm philosophical position, but as a pragmatic strategy that is guided by “political” interests in its oscillations between realism and idealism. Its commitments are not to reality, but to the description of a functionally differentiated social order.

Nach einer kritischen Sichtung der Luhmann’schen Überlegungen zum Phänomen der Emotionen wird eine Theorie entwickelt, die emotionale Prozesse in einer Zone der strukturellen Kopplung von organischem, psychischem und sozialem System lokalisiert. Die Theorie lenkt die Aufmerksamkeit auf einen substantiellen historischen Zusammenhang von (legalen oder moralischen) Rechten und Emotionen. Dieser Zusammenhang wird durch einige Beispiele illustriert, die sich mit spezifischen Emotionen und einem allgemeinen Konzept von Emotionen beschäftigen.

All living systems, e.g., cells, organisms, groups, and species (including humans) are tied together in communication networks (social systems) as well as into a hypernetwork of all social systems. Their interaction forms the entire terrestrial biosphere or Gaia, a social system akin to the unified organism of a living cell, which itself is a social system of its constitutive organelles. Connecting different species into a coherent, interactive, and self-organizing system cannot happen without death and birth (autopoiesis) – the fuel of environmental adaptation. The natural death of species does not signal maladaptability of the species, but harmony, adaptability, and systemic perseverance of the social network of species. Death is a cosmological event – the most exquisite assurance of life yet to be. Relevance: This paper strongly relates to the theory of autopoietic systems based on the work of Maturana, Varela and Uribe.