This entails limits not only on generalizing and abstracting influence relations, but, at the same time, on the functional differentiation of social systems. Despite all the interest in the 'principles' of social life, generalizing about motives being available at different points in time cannot be entirely separated from the factual background of the system and its multifarious concrete commitments. With all the conceptual abstraction and highly developed verbal skill it involves, reputation always retains a link with available knowledge. In short, generalizations in the different dimensions of meaning presuppose one another.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 741