Geltungsansprüche und Beobachtungen zweiter Ordnung. Wie nahe kommen sich Diskurs- und Systemtheorie?

As part of a set of investigations to the Habermas-Luhmann-debate the article in hand presumes, that the difference between the Theory of Discourses and the Theory of Systems is fundamental but not unbridgeable. In particular the new book of Niklas Luhmann "Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft" seems to give reason to suspect certain analogies and parallels in the two theories. With special regard to this book the article in hand tries to contrast the Habermasian necessity to anticipate "Geltungsansprüche" with the implications of the Luhmannian "second order observation" for to make such analogies visible. General aim thereby is not to appeace the debate between the two conceptions but to help to understand its principles better and to generate new perspectives for social theory.