CONTENTS

Preface

I. INTRODUCTION

1. The Trojan Horse

Luhmann’s (Not So) Hidden Radicalism

2. Why He Wrote Such Bad Books

II. FROM PHILOSOPHY TO THEORY

3. The Fourth Insult

A Refutation of Humanism

4. From Necessity to Contingency

A Carnivalization of Philosophy

5. The Last Footnote to Plato

A Solution to the Mind-Body Problem

6. Ecological Evolution

A Challenge to Social Creationism

7. Constructivism as Postmodernist Realism

A Teaching of Differences

8. Democracy as a Utopia

A Deconstruction of Politics

9. Conclusion

Nec spe nec metu: Neither Hope nor Fear

Appendix

Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998): A Short Intellectual Biography

Abbreviations

Notes

Index