Contingency (sociology)
Contingency ( late Latin contingentia “possibility, chance”) is a term used in sociology , especially systems theory ( Niklas Luhmann , Talcott Parsons ), to denote the fundamental openness and uncertainty of human life experiences.
Contingency according to Luhmann
Niklas Luhmann defined the term as follows: “Contingent is something that is neither necessary nor impossible; what can be as it is (was, will be), but is also possible in other ways. The term thus denotes what is given (what is to be experienced, expected, thought, fantasized) with regard to possible otherness; it designates objects in the horizon of possible modifications. "With this, Luhmann was referring to Aristotle , who saw contingency as not necessary and not impossible :" It could also be different. "
Even the perception of the world is contingent, so an individual can perceive the forest in this way, but also differently: One will perceive the wood to be processed and the profit from it, another the idyll and the chirping of birds. No one can claim that his perception is the only possible and correct one. And no one can foresee with certainty how the other will perceive this forest due to the other's contingency.
Contingency is based on distinctions and constructions that can always be and be made in this way and also different. The term means a negation of necessity and impossibility. The fundamental openness of human attitudes and actions, which leads to the complexity and unpredictability of social systems, is supposed to be overcome in some theories by a fixed social order. Luhmann, on the other hand, wants to overcome it through communication, in which an emergent order arises through observation and trial and error over time . Luhmann calls this emergent order a “social system”.
From an epistemological point of view, contingency is the (in turn contingent) knowledge that all knowledge is relative. Absolute knowledge is impossible in principle. "It can always be completely different." Contingency has developed into a central concept in epistemology . He shows that self-contained and at the same time universal theories are not possible. Rather, knowledge arises in self-referential processes on the basis of previous knowledge that is different in the respective fields of science or individuals. Therefore, different areas of science or individuals come to different new findings on the basis of their previous knowledge.
A special problem of contingency is double contingency . It describes the initially apparent improbability of successful communication when two individuals make their actions dependent on the contingent actions of the other. Luhmann also wants to overcome the double contingency through communication: through observation of the other as well as through trial and error, an emergent order emerges over time, which Luhmann calls a "social system" (see above) .
The systems theory according to Niklas Luhmann sees an increase in the complexity of the social in the course of the functional differentiation of modern societies. Options for action have increased, so experiences of contingency have become more likely.
In the structural media education theory according to Winfried Marotzki , the concept of contingency plays a decisive role as a triggering factor for educational processes.
Contingency management
Dealing with contingency is limiting the risk of being disappointed. The risk of disappointment arises from uncertainties for which one has no explanation. In the cultural history of man, many strategies have been developed to make the world more predictable. Religion and its contingency suppression mechanisms are of central importance here. However, there were and are other systems that aim to cope with contingency, such as political ideologies or the law .
religion
The philosopher Hermann Lübbe describes the function of religion as follows: "Religion is a practice of coping with contingency of contingencies that transcend action." This means that religion does not offer consolation for the worst crashes in life, death, separation, but a form of action that to deal with such disasters at all.
The strategies of coping with contingency are linked to the theological question of the so-called theodicy , i. i. the question of how God can be thought of as all-good and all-powerful at the same time in a world of evil. One possible answer since Leibniz has been an ethical one: support and help are the order of the day in such contingency experiences. Everything else - e.g. B. the attempt to explain - is considered theologically as blasphemy (Biblical Job book ).
Religious systems of interpretation try to give answers about the existence of suffering. In Christianity and also with Schopenhauer, human existence was thought of as something sinful, which had to be atoned for by existence. While Paul Gerhardt still accepts this interpretation, Leibniz no longer has it.
See also
literature
General
- Rüdiger Bubner / Konrad Cramer / Reiner Wiehl (eds.): Contingency . New booklets for philosophy No. 24/25, Vandenhoeck & Rupprecht, Göttingen 1985.
- Elena Esposito : The Commitment of the Temporary: Paradoxes of Fashion . (From the Italian by Alessandra Corti.) Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2004.
- Markus Holzinger: The space of the political. Political theory under the sign of contingency . Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 2006.
- Markus Holzinger: Contingency in contemporary society. Dimensions of a central concept of modern social theory . Bielefeld 2007.
- Gerhart v. Graevenitz and Odo Marquard (eds.): Contingency. Fink, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7705-3263-5
- Wolfgang Knöbl: The Contingency of Modernity. Paths in Europe, Asia and America. Campus, Frankfurt / New York 2007.
- Niklas Luhmann: Social Systems. Outline of a general theory . Frankfurt / M. 1993, 4th edition. In: Balgo, Rolf: Movement and Perception as a System . Dortmund 1997.
- Michael Makropoulos: Modernity and Contingency. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Munich 1997.
Contingency management
- Hermann Lübbe : Contingency experience and contingency coping , 1998, in: Gerhart von Graevenitz , Odo Marquard (ed.): Kontingenz , Munich, pp. 35–47.