Introduction: Systems, Theory, Computer, and Sociology

The underlying main idea of this work is, like all basic ideas, very simple and, strictly speaking, as old as theoretical sociology itself. It simply consists in the fact that people construct social reality by interacting in accordance with specific rules. By this means, contexts of action and interaction emerge that are described, in a now familiar terminology, as “systems”. These systems, generated by rule-governed interactions, retroact on every situation of action, which in turn modifies every single action and interaction, and so on. For the social scientist, it is merely a matter of methodological approach, and not of social ontology, to derive one’s basic assumptions from the realm of elementary actions and interactions or from the higher level of systems. In either case, the interdependence between the level of the local action and that of systems has to be taken into consideration. The decisive consideration is this: on the basis of which rules are (local) interactions performed, and what kind of system dynamics result from these rules? Hence, the task of sociology can be seen as that of analyzing the logic and consequences of social rule systems.