  From the perspective of cultural studies and critical theory, Luhmann's
communication-theoretical approach in sociology can still be read as a
meta-biology: while biologists take the development of life as a given, Luhmann
tends to treat the development of meaning as a cultural given. Meaning is no
longer considered as constructed in communication, but meaning processing
precedes and controls communication as an independent variable. Habermas
appreciates Luhmann's distinction between psychic and social systems, but he
challenges us to bring the critique of metaphysical issues (of providing
meaning to events in a dialectics) back into this metabiological perspective
that processes meaning without intentionality, that is, as a scientistic
objectivation.
