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Whatever we know about society, or indeed about the world in which we live, we know through the mass media. This is true not only of our knowledge of society but also of our knowledge of nature.

— Niklas Luhmann The reality of the Mass Media (2000)

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More quotes by Niklas Luhmann

The art system operates on its own terms, but an observer of art can choose many different distinctions to indicate what he observes.

Art As a Social System (2000)

The following investigations attempt this transition to a radically anti-humanist, a radically anti-regionalist and a radically constructivist concept of society.

Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft (1999)

Humans cannot communicate; not even their brains can communicate; not even their conscious minds can communicate. Only communication can communicate.

Luhmann (1988)

The effect if not the function of the mass media seems to lie, therefore, in the reproduction of non- transparency through transparency, in the reproduction of non-transparency of effects through transparency of knowledge.

The reality of the Mass Media (2000)

No matter how abstractly formulated are a general theory of systems, a general theory of evolution and a general theory of communication, all three theoretical components are necessary for the specifically sociological theory of society. They are mutually interdependent.

Luhmann (1982)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Niklas Luhmann (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.