Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: The Fabrication of Serendipity

¹ Luhmann’s filing system served him as a research or thinking tool. “Underlying the filing technique is the experience that without writing, there is no thinking.”

¹ Potential mistakes that were later revised but not removed from the file as the original cards always remained in the file and perhaps a new card with revisions was added if needed.

Excerpts

The bulk of the collections (approximately 75,000 cards) consist of notes documenting the results of Luhmann’s readings, but also his own thoughts and theoretical arguments and concepts. The notes resulting from his readings are not simply excerpts; what mattered to him was “what could be utilized in which way for the cards that had already been written. Hence, when reading, I always have the question in mind of how the books can be integrated into the filing system.”

in the evening he transferred the often only rudimentary records he made during the day into new notes

he operated on the assumption that a decision on the usefulness of a note could only be made in relating it to the other notes — and therefore would (in many cases) be a matter to be decided in the future: by re-reading the note in the context of new notes compiled afterwards or in the context of an inquiry

it was not clear right from the beginning where the note to be added would be inserted into the collection

All this together make Luhmann’s card index a complex cognitive system with a creativity of its own, a “second memory” as he called it.

Reference

Johannes F.K. Schmidt “Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: The Fabrication of Serendipity” (2018) DOI: 10.6092/ISSN.1971-8853/8350

@Article{schmidt2018,
  doi = {10.6092/ISSN.1971-8853/8350},
  url = {https://sociologica.unibo.it/article/view/8350},
  author = {Schmidt, Johannes F.K.},
  language = {en},
  title = {Niklas Luhmann’s Card Index: The Fabrication of Serendipity},
  journal = {Sociologica},
  volume = {Vol 12},
  pages = {No 1 (2018)},
  publisher = {Sociologica},
  year = {2018},
  copyright = {This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.}
}

Rephrased from:
One must also not lose sight of the fact that Luhmann’s filing system also — and above all — served him as a research or thinking tool. This is not only true in terms of the proposition that the file acted as a communication partner in the research process but also in regard to the fact that in Luhmann’s mind the process of writing things down enables disciplined thinking in the first place: “Underlying the filing technique is the experience that without writing, there is no thinking.” Accordingly, the file also documents the evolution of important theoretical constructs in Luhmann’s thinking. It contains not only validated knowledge but also reflects the thought process, including potential mistakes and blind alleys that were later revised but not (!) removed from the file as the original cards always remained in the file and perhaps a new card with revisions was added if needed. In this sense, the file is more than just an analog database of Luhmann’s theory: it can be seen as — drawing on the words of Erving Goffman — the backstage of his theory and therefore as Niklas Luhmann’s intellectual autobiography.
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