Abstract
In this article I look into the difference between structure and semantics as an explanatory key for the claims of systems theory about its advantages as a sociological self-description of modern society. The central argument is that systems theory resorts to this difference for explaining how social structures set in motion specific semantics. The relation between social structure and semantics is mediated by the complexity of the structures. In this sense, systems theory is distinguished from postmodern theories of discourse or power. Rather than establishing the plurality of narratives and inferring from it often hasty consequences regarding the contingency, such as the centrality of power in social reproduction, systems theory insists on a precedence of the social that points to the structural roots of the visibility of such contingency. This makes society able to reflect on its possibilities, based on a theory appropriate to its own complexity.
Keywords:
Systems theory; Complexity; Structure/ semantics