Prologue

At the beginning of the 1970s, the German public was introduced to a debate over the correct contemporary theoretical understanding of society. The circumstances leading up to it make it seem almost entirely coincidental. When Luhmann gave a lecture on the sociology of love in Frankfurt, his apparent coldness with regard to the topic – his professional scientific attitude, in other words – was met with a similarly cold reception amongst the politically engaged students there, as a result of which they asked Habermas for a statement. Habermas, who was Adorno's assistant at the time, invited Luhmann to one of his own seminars, with their discussion eventually culminating in the book Theorie der Gesellschaft oder Sozialtechnologie (Theory of Society or Social Technology, Habermas and Luhmann, 1971).

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For more information, please refer to:

https://doi.org/10.1108/K-12-2020-862