While the latter sought a philosophical tradition of moral foundation, the theory developed by Niklas Luhmann society aims to describe the society as it is the task of the sociologist is not normative, is to simply improve the understanding of social complexity.

According to Luhmann, modern society, functionally differentiated, it can no longer be integrated thanks to the moral. Nor can isolate the moral in any of the functional systems of society, which appear decoupled from the moral code. However, they operate on functional equivalents of morality symbolically generalized communication media seeking the fluidity and continuity of communications. Sociological analysis and discover the function of every moral rule expectations and the expectations of expectations, required for stabilizing interactions in a society of individuals.

This volume brings together for the first time the most important essays on the moral Luhmann. Within its project of a theory of society, pose a new kind of ethics as' description of the moral 'or' reflexive theory of morality. "The possibility of a study of morality in relation to the risks and dangers as well as a conception of the person from the perspective of inclusion in society on the basis of esteem and contempt is thus opened.