Spatiality, Imitation, Immunization: Luhmann and Sloterdijk on the Social

Abstract

If grand social theorizing is a well-known German dish, then many chefs know how to prepare it. In this essay I shall examine two recent recipes, namely those offered by Niklas Luhmann and Peter Sloterdijk. Bringing together Luhmann and Sloterdijk might surprise at first sight. To be sure, both of them have formulated grand theories of the social, but while Luhmann has done so within a sociological horizon, Sloterdijk’s work is typically associated with a philosophical tradition. This disciplinary partition is only partly sustainable, however. After all Luhmann draws extensively on philosophical resources in his social theorizing; and Sloterdijk’s commitment to combine theoretical reflections with empirical observations might be said to challenge the boundaries of what is usually conceived as sociological analysis (this argument has been developed by Thrift, 2009; see also Thrift in Bech, Larsen and Borch, 2010: 99; Borch, 2012b: 296). Moreover, a conversation or encounter between the perspectives of Luhmann and Sloterdijk has already been initiated by Sloterdijk, a keen reader of Luhmann. In 2000 Sloterdijk published a tribute to Luhmann in the German journal devoted to Luhmannian systems theory, Soziale Systeme (Sloterdijk, 2000b). And in Sloterdijk’s grand opus, Sphären I–III (1998; 1999; 2004), Luhmann’s work often figures as a kind of discussion partner against which Sloterdijk positions himself.