Second order observation

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Under an observation of the second order is used in the second-order cybernetics the observation of observation understood.

Strictly speaking, every reading of texts or looking at pictures is “second-order observation”: one observes the notes of an author, painter or photographer who has used them to fix his own observations. The sociologist Niklas Luhmann uses this term to explain modern phenomena such as institutional security or the credibility of information. With the increase in records in daily life since modern times , first-order observations are being replaced and supplemented by second-order observations. The unmediated is replaced by the mediated, which one trusts rather than one's own senses.

Second-order observation makes the “blind spot” visible, i.e. that which cannot or should not be perceived from the chosen observer's perspective (cf. selective perception ): The observer cannot observe his own observation. Second-order observation makes visible at least the conditions and limitations of the previous observations.

Examples

Second-order observation presupposes the loyalty of the previous observer and the trust of the subsequent observer. This is facilitated by the fact that it happens in a wider public than first-order observation:

  • You take coins at their imprinted face value instead of putting them on the scales every time to determine their value ( metallism ).
  • The signature of a contract is believed to be more real than the current statements of the signatory.

From what to how

The transition from the first-order observation to observation of the second order is for Luhmann's view, a change from what questions to How questions . So not: "What did the war cause?" - "It claimed human lives", but rather: "How did the war cause that?" - "It went this way and that."

Such a gain in distance is associated with every scientification. The political, social, emotional neutralization of the observed is intended to create a community as an interaction between the observers.

See also

literature