Self reference

From Geography

Self reference can occur in natural or formal languages when a sentence refers to itself. But in philosophy it has a different meaning.

Niklas Luhmann linked the term to autopoiesis (used by biologists Humberto Maturana and Manuela Varele to define the difference between living entities and other entities who might have equal complex forms of organization. For them the distinct feature of living entities is that they can produce and reproduce themselves (Arnoldi, 2001)), which is an important concept to Luhmann. He considers it as the heart of his systems theory where systems not only produce and reproduce themselves but also refer to themselves.

According to Luhmann (1995), social systems are self-referential systems. They can be observed and described as systems, by acknowledging that they refer to themselves in every operation. However, self-reference, as used by Luhmann, is not confined only to reference to one's self. Strictly speaking, if a system referred only to itself, and never acknowledged an environment, the term auto-reference would suffice (Luhmann, 1995).

References:

Arnoldi, J. Niklas Luhmann, An Introduction. 2001

Luhmann, N. Social Systems, Stanford University Press, Stanford. 1995

Published by Thijs Koolhof (4048385) and Robbert Vossers (4080939)