The Constitution in the Work of Niklas Luhmann

In an additional section Giancarlo Corsi and Johannes Schmidt explore the Luhmann’s methodology of his famous card index in search of references to the specific issue of the constitution. Luhmann conceived the card index as a huge amount of notes with a numbered fixed location, each related to a previous note and with no specific or predetermined order. Schmidt’s research clearly demonstrates that the meaning of each note in this filing system derives from its references to other notes, in an often fragmented connection. In this context, Luhmann’s card index sheds light on the character of a difficult tool that drives its user towards unexpected results, almost inevitably leading to ideas that cannot be deduced directly from the filing system itself. Luhmann wrote notes and then put them in what he called his Zettelkasten in order to surprise himself. And it comes as no surprise from a scholar who had a particular sensitivity for paradoxes.