Description and Reflection: on self-descriptions of society in Niklas Luhmann's theory

This paper aims to systematize the main ideas concerning the theme of self-descriptions. Self-descriptions do not define a specific theory inside the theory of society, but they are constructed around a series of postulates stemming from different theoretical fragments. The main one is the observer theory, as the theoretical fundament upon which the self-descriptive developments rely. The most general hypothesis concerning self-descriptions indicates that modern society has reacted to the loss of the monopoly of representation with an abstraction of the problem of identity while increasing the need for reflection. This paper identifies the central cognitive implications of self-descriptions, their relation to temporality, and their proliferation in modernity. In addition, concerning the self-descriptions inside the functional systems, the dominant role of the reflection theories is analyzed.