The relevance of theoretical anti-humanism: Luhmann and Althusser facing the problem of social differentiation / integration

Abstract

Reflecting on theoretical anti-humanism as a problematic for contemporary social thought, we oppose the formulations of Althusserian Marxism to the Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Systems – that considered peripheral, this recognized as legitimate in the sociological field – about how both, anchored in this epistemological position, present their theoretical formulations in relation to the classical sociological problem of differentiation/social integration. To do so, at first, we situate the antihumanism facing the current sociological problematic and the political configuration to which it is inserted. In a second moment, we pass on to the authors in question, with the help of commentators, analyzing Althusser’s Marxism and its structural proposal and, soon afterwards, the theory of systems. Fleeing a necessary synthesis between them, we emphasize their differences to, from the highlighting of this plurality, shed light on the various possibilities, contrary to the criticism from the defense of (inter) subjectivity perspective do believe, that this approach opens for theorizing and understanding of complex societies.