Summary

When one gets older, one looks at the science in which one has been working for a long time from a certain distance such that the general approach, the contours of the whole and the connections to other parts of the social sciences come to the foreground whereas the elaboration of the details must be left to younger colleagues. This applies also to this book: details are left to younger colleagues - if they find it worthwhile to try this new approach. I know quite well that the ideas presented here are incomplete and more in the spirit of a research program than a final product in itself. But time runs out. I personally think that this new road is worthwhile trying, but, of course, I, as the author, am not unprejudiced. On the other hand, after a certain age one is not so sensible to be torn to pieces by his critics, nature will do that anyway. I present here only the basic ideas, the "hard core" of the theory and leave out most of the definitional relations which close the system. I leave that to the interested reader and to the scholar who wants to work with the system. There are some repetitions in the book.