Open peer commentary on the article “The Circular Conditions of Second-order Science Sporadically Illustrated with Agent-based Experiments at the Roots of Observation” by Manfred Füllsack. Upshot: Observers construct an internal, local state of order for the perspective of their observations, but in doing so they increase the overall entropy of the system they belong to, e.g., society, by adding more options for potential courses of action. Thus, the Second Law of Thermodynamics is not just satisfied in the circular condition of second-order observations, but the increase in entropy is actually exploited as a resource by a system such as society, where it serves as a prerequisite for double contingency.

Open peer commentary on the article “Ontology, Reality and Construction in Niklas Luhmann’s Theory” by Krzysztof C. Matuszek. Upshot: The question of whether contingency can be limited concerns the foundations of sociological systems theory as a theory of cognition. This commentary argues that while such limits may seem plausible and apparent at first, they would consequentially give rise to an ontological notion of society within society. Rather, the commentary proposes to understand the limits identified in the target article as social functions structuring expectations in situations of double contingency.