Only when, and in so far as, goods are scarce does the active claim to some of them on the part of one person become a problem for others, and this situation is then regulated by a communication medium, which transfers the action selected by the one person into the experience of the others and so makes it acceptable. In the context of scarcity, influence becomes precarious in a special way, so that, in view of this unusual situation, a specifically generalized communication medium can take shape, which makes possible the transmission of reduced complexity in this case, but not in others. This is also how truth arises. Here too, with the framework of unproblematical assumptions and beliefs, a certain improbability of information must first arise before test criteria start to function, and before a special code can be formed to regulate the identification of truth and untruth. Truth is doubt overcome.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 605