Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
The New School is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Social Research.
http://www.jstor.org
The FutureCannot /
Begin:Temporal /
Structuresn /
Modern /
SOCety / BY
BY NIKLAS
NIKLAS LUHMANN
LUHMANN
iFor Neo-Platonic origins, cf. the texts edited by S. Sambursky and S. Pines,
The Concept of Time in Late Neoplatonism (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences
and Humanities, 1971). Cf. also Pitirim A. Sorokin, Socio/ and Cultural Dynamics,
4 vols. (New York: BedminsterPress,1937),2: 473 ff.
TEMPORAL STRUCTURES 131
Cf. Robert Nisbert, Social Change and History (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1969), pp. 106 ff.
Cf. Reinhart Koselleck,"Historia Magistra Vitae," in Manfred Riedel, ed., Natur
und Geschichte (Stuttgart,1967), pp. 196-220; and Reinhart Koselleck, "Vergangene
Zukunftder frhenNeuzeit," in Festgabe fr Carl Schmitt (Berlin, 1968), pp. 551-
566.
*Cf. Carl L. Becker, The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth CenturyPhilosophers
(New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1932).
8 So Henri Grgoire, Sur les moyens de perfectionnerles sciences politiques,
Mmoires de l'Institut National (Classe des sciences morales et politiques), Vol. I
(Paris, 1798), pp. 552-556. Future is perceived, in this political context at least,
as close at hand (prochainementl). Actually,neither the word avenir nor the phrase
Le tempspresentest gros d'avenir had been invented during the French Revolution.
The phrase servesas motto in Louis Sbastien Mercier'sbook VAn deux mille quatre
cent quarante: Rve s'il en fut jamais (London, 1772). Mercier refers to Leibniz.
Checking Leibniz, we find a characteristicdifference.He does not speak about "the
present time" but only about the present as such and uses the phrase only to show
that monads have a temporal dimension. For example: Essais de Theodice 360
(in C.J. Gerhardt,ed., Die philosophischenSchriftenvon GottfriedWilhelm Leibniz
[Hildesheim: Olms, 1961],6: 329): "C'est une des reglesde mon systmede l'harmonie
que le present est gros de l'avenir." Or Principes de la Nature et de la Grace,
fondes en raison 13 (Gerhardt 6: 604): "Le present est gros de l'avenir, le future
se pouvoit lire dans le pass, l'loign est exprim dans le prochain." Or Letter to
Bayle, without date (Gerhardt 3: 66): "Le present est toujours gros de l'avenir ou
-
chaque substance doit exprimer ds present tous ses estais futurs" thus: no open
future! Or Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement (Gerhardt 5: 48): "Le present est
gros de l'avenir et charg du pass."
TEMPORAL STRUCTURES 133
estionesdisputatele
de Vertateq. II, art. 12; Summa Theologiaei q. 14 art. 13;
WilliamOckham,Tractatusde praedestinatione et de praescientia
Dei et de futuris
contingentibus,edited by PhilotheusBoehner(St. BonaventuraN.Y.: Franciscan
St. Bonaventure
Institute, College,1945);Leon Baudry,ed., La Querelledes futurs
contingents(Louvain 1465-1475)(Paris: J. Vrin,1950).
82Cf. Paulus Engelhardt,"Der Menschund seine Zukunft:Zur Fragenach dem
Menschenbei Thomas von Aquin," in Festchrift fr Max Mller (Freiburg-
Mnchen,1966),pp. 352-374.
s Leon Brunschvicg,L'expriencehumaineet la causalitphysique(Paris:Alean,
1949),p. 355.
84Cf. ErnestCoumet,"La Thoriedu Hasardest-ellene par Hasard?,"Annales:
Economies,Socits,Civilisations
25 (1970): 574-598,
142 SOCIAL RESEARCH