From Marx to Luhmann – a "Sociological Turn�? Aspects of the development of European society"s scientific self-description

The paper – a lecture held at the sociological department of Michigan State University in October 2003 – regards the social theoretic conceptions of Karl Marx and Niklas Luhmann as two essential cornerstones in the development of European society"s scientific self-description in the last 150 years. By comparing some aspects of these two conceptions, it tries to show that the way European society scientifically describes itself has undertaken a decisive turn from social philosophy to sociology in the course of this development, leaving not much more of the original Marxian conception unchallenged than the notion that the form of society"s self-description is determined by society"s social structure.