Niklas Luhmann as a Theorist of Exclusion : A Journey from the Greek Polis to the Brazilian Favelas

Abstract

Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998) is considered one of the most sophisticated and influential sociologists of the second half of the twentieth century. Nevertheless, he is usually set apart from his peers who are better liked and cause less animosity in contemporary academic circles. The reason for this is quite simple. He refused to build his reputation in the usual way: addressing the most pressing concerns of public opinion, embracing causes of significant political appeal, and providing ready-made solutions to ease the evils of the present day. "I am the Lucifer of social theory," Luhmann confessed while his face glowed with a mischievous smile during his last visit to London. If he is demonized, it is because he chose to be so. He enjoyed being a thinker of cult status; he resembled other illustrious German thinkers: Martin Heidegger, Carl Schmitt, Eric Voegelin, and Leo Strauss, for example, using Luhmann a hermetic language to avoid theoretical simplifications but also to circumvent the need to take clear political stances. He preferred disciples rather than comrades, initiates who learned to move around the labyrinth, an image he frequently deployed to describe his body of work. At the height of his prestige, he mentored small groups of followers at select universities around the world. These were academic clusters formed by staunch supporters of his Systems Theory, cutting-edge functionalism capable of answering without hesitation almost any question posed about the social world. Luhmann and his followers bragged about having a "super theory" of universal scope, one ideal poised to include in their explanations "both themselves and their opponents." 1 After Luhmann's death, no one dared to replace the eminent scholar as head of his sociological school. His disciples' determination to translate, explain (without lapsing into textbook simplifications), and recruit new cohorts in real-time relied on what had been the overpowering charisma and productivity of the theorist based in Bielefeld. Luhmannism without Luhmann tends to abjure its proclivity to incest and opens a Niklas Luhmann as a Theorist of Exclusion : A Journey from the Greek Polis to... Transtext(e)s Transcultures 跨文本跨文化, 14 | 2019 10 The Menexenus deals with history and politics, not with epistemology. Plato tells of the Lacedemonians' manoeuvres devised to conquer some towns on the edge of the Hellenic world. The invaders' plan relied on the assumption that Athens would be tired after endless military conflagrations. It was very unlikely, or so they predicted, that Athens would come to the defence of the communities that turned in its cultural orbit, but with whom relations were rather strained. Upon the imminence of the Argive attack, Beocians and Corinthians asked the regional power for help. The Athenians had sworn not to participate in the conflicts of other cities; however, their strong sense of