Luhmann uses the term ‘systems’ in a very specific way – a fact that is very often missed by those who wish to classify him as a systems theorist in the traditional sense. Early anthropological and previous functionalist theories understood systems through the existence of networks of people and describe the ways that individuals or groups of individuals, who are seen as belonging to the same organization or institution, relate to one another. The identification of a system and its description rely for their validity on the assumption of naturalism in the social world. Social systems exist naturally in society just as physical systems exist in the natural world. This makes it possible for observers of social systems to capture reality through unproblematic descriptions of what they are and what they do. In a similar way, people can be seen as belonging to a system. Judges, therefore, are part of the legal system, for example, and psychiatrists part of the medical system. Yet these predominantly naturalistic principles fail to capture the idea of the system as developed by Luhmann. Within his theory, systems are not simply parts of the natural world or extensions of physical entities. They are not subject to laws and logic governing their operations, the discovery of which increases the possibilities for control and improvement.

DEFINE: Distinguishes Luhmann's technical sense of 'system' from the naturalistic, people-based meaning used by earlier functionalist and anthropological theories.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 18