Rossbach: Corpus Mysticism

Rossbach, Stefan. (2004). ""Corpus Mysticum": Nicklas Luhmann's evocation of world society". In M. Albert & L. Hilkermeier (Eds.), Observing international relations : Niklas Luhmann and world politics (pp. xiv, 254 p.). London ; New York: Routledge.

The thrust of this chapter is that Luhmann’s creation of international society was through speculation, vision and mysticism. “I will argue that Luhmann is representative of a tradition of thought known as ‘contemplative gnosis’…I will argue that there is a fundamental flaw in Luhmann’s understanding of society because he failed to explain how the ‘totality of communication’ could possibly constitute a ‘system’” (44).

Rossbach looks at how Luhmann’s theory may have been heavily influenced by mystical thinkers, specifically Nicholas of Cusa. Luhmann’s thoughts vis-à-vis autopoiesis originated after his possible influence by this mystical thinker. Theories were meant to help people see the ‘blind spots’ in history. Cusa called the oneness of observer and observation God. Rossbach claims that Luhmann calls this “world” (47).

Rossbach claims that Luhmann himself understands that his approach is devoid of any foundation. He also claims that such universal theorizing has a long history in mysticism. He concludes by claiming that the theory is flawed, rooted in mysticism, though incredibly complex.