Full text
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| Author(s): |
José Vitor Silva Barros
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2023-10-31 |
| Examining board members: |
Leopoldo Garcia Pinto Waizbort;
Pablo Holmes Chaves;
Raúl Zamorano Farías;
Roberto Dutra Torres Junior
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| Advisor: | Leopoldo Garcia Pinto Waizbort |
| Abstract | |
This dissertation reconstructs the concepts of \"world\" and \"world society\" elaborated by Niklas Luhmann (*1927-1998). To do so, it situates them in the general architecture of his sociological theory of society. In methodological terms, a self-referential observation of the theory is performed, which implies describing it from its concepts. Such a strategy makes the discussion accessible to a wider audience. As a result, the thesis can also be read as a thematic introduction to Luhmann. In the first chapter, there is a selective presentation of his oeuvre\'s conceptual foundations, which overcome two significant epistemological obstacles: the theory of the subject and the anthropocentric understanding of social systems. The second chapter then deconstructs a third obstacle, the political-regional concept of society, as it shows that modern society is integrated globally through its structure (functional differentiation), beyond morality or politics. On this basis, it only makes sense to talk about modern society (as the most comprehensive social system) as a world society. Finally, the third chapter consists of the thesis\' core. It outlines the worldness of modern society by demarcating its three concepts of world (metasystemic, systemic, and intrasystemic). They respectively shed light on the conditions of possibility for the emergence of social systems, the unity (of difference) between system and environment, and the operational reality of each system. With these elements at hand, the structural-operational framework of contemporary world society is reconstructed by analyzing (i) the global communicative sphere, (ii) the primacy of cognitive expectations in most social systems, and (iii) the exponential complexity of society and the subsequent risk proliferation. Thus, this study demonstrates that Luhmann\'s theory plays a crucial role in the canon of contemporary social and sociological thought, as his concepts can guide research endeavors of various kinds interested in observing the complexity of modern society and in going beyond anthropocentrism or methodological and theoretical nationalism (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 21/02568-0 - Inclusion/exclusion in world society: a study on the relation between inequality, functional differentiation, and the construction of a systemic theory of world society |
| Grantee: | José Vitor Silva Barros |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |