A Systems Theoretical Perspective on Communication

Abstract

This essay asserts that it is impossible to understand any communica- tive utterance outside the context in which it is uttered. Within this context, I expound a conception of communication based on ideas in information theory and on Niklas Luhmann's systems theory, which provides a theoretical founda- tion for the context dependency of utterances. At the same time, I introduce readers to Luhmann's version of systems theory, which is becoming more and more influential in German literary theory. The view of communication ex- pounded here implies that as all meaning is founded on difference, an utterance can acquire meaning only by differing from other utterances, that is, by negat- ing other positions. Therefore, the context is always part of the utterance; it enters, so to speak, into the utterance. At issue here is a specific type of con- text, a specific axis of difference, correlated with the utterance in a particular way. I try to show exactly how this specific conceptualization of the relation be- tween meaning and context, between communication and difference, is to be understood. First, I discuss the systems theoretical concept of communication and illustrate it with several examples taken largely from political and literary communication. Next, I address the way this concept of communication and difference diverges from (post)structuralist theories, to which it might seem to bear some resemblance. Finally, I examine the difficult question of the relation- ship between communicative utterances, contexts, and their place within social systems, focusing especially on Luhmann's conceptualization of the art system. The first thing the pope asked on his arrival in Chicago was, Where are the prostitutes in this city? I want to visit them first. A rather surprising