Contents:
Volume
6 No. 3, 1999
Søren
Brier: Foreword Full Text
Dirk
Baecker: Gypsy Reason: Niklas Luhmann’s Sociological Enlightenment Abstract
Niklas
Luhmann: Sign as Form Abstract
Nina
Ort and Markus Peter: Niklas Luhmann: ‘Sign as Form’ — A comment Abstract
Burton
Voorhees:
Correlational
Analysis of Complex Systems Abstract
Columns
Louis
H. Kauffman: Virtual Logic — The Matrix Full
Text
Ranulph
Glanville, Bob Barbour, Michael Schreiber and Stuart Umpleby: A (Cybernetic)
Musing: The Millennium Bug Full
Text
Reviews
John
P. van Gigch: An Introduction to Epistemology
ASC Pages
Pille
Bunnell: An Invitation for Conversation and Reflection
Full Text
C&HK
Homepage
Subscriptions
Index,
forewords and abstracts to back volumes |
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Niklas
Luhmann: 'Sign as Form'
A Comment
By Nina
Ort and Markus Peter
Abstract: ‘Sign as
Form’ is Niklas Luhmann’s attempt to combine systems theory with sign theory
by trying to integrate George Spencer-Brown’s ‘Laws of Form’. Systems theory
operates with two sorts of metaphors representing either the meaning of
inside and outside of a form (asymmetry) or both sides of an complementary
couple (symmetry) which determine the subsequent arguments. The integration
of an included third term, that would complete a semiotic sign, cannot
be achieved by operating with dyadic distinctions however. This contribution
discovers difficulties that arise from that combination and tries to show
how the use of n-valued logic helps to overcome these problems.
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