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Emergence: A Systems Theory’s Challenge to Ethics

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Abstract

The paper reconstructs Niklas Luhmann’s diagnosis of the dysfunctional character of moral communication in the modern society by emphasizing the emergent character of today’s moral problems. In the systems-theoretic literature, emergence means the irreducibility of the properties of the whole to the characteristics of its parts. Two arguments have been advanced. First, the dysfunctional character of moral communication has been traced back to the emergent character of many moral problems. Moral communication has thus been shown to be not inherently dysfunctional, but rather needful of semantic forms that take account of the emergent properties of the economic and other social systems. Second, these properties highlight the moral aspect of the precariousness of system–environment relations as seen by Luhmann. As a moral problem, this precariousness can be resolved through greater sensitivity of social systems to their environment, social and natural alike. Accordingly, the emergent properties of the economic and other social systems can be captured by recasting the concept of responsibility as the individual-level or organizational-level projection of the environmental sensitivity of these systems.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development, Theodor-Lieser-Str.2, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Vladislav Valentinov

  2. Chair of Economic Ethics, Martin Luther University, Große Steinstrasse 73, 06108, Halle, Germany

    Stefan Hielscher & Ingo Pies

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  1. Vladislav Valentinov
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  2. Stefan Hielscher
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  3. Ingo Pies
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Correspondence to Vladislav Valentinov.

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Valentinov, V., Hielscher, S. & Pies, I. Emergence: A Systems Theory’s Challenge to Ethics. Syst Pract Action Res 29, 597–610 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-016-9380-9

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