Frontmatter -- Inhalt -- Introduction: The Form of the Problem -- Are There Still Indispensable Norms in Our Society? -- Beyond Barbarism -- On Norms as Social Facts: A View from Historical Political Science -- The Fact of Values -- A Test of Conscience Without Indispensable Norms: Niklas Luhmann’s War on Terror -- »Against Normative Tone-Deafness« -- Torture and Systems Theory -- »Human Rights Fundamentalism« The Late Luhmann on Human Rights -- On Absence: Society’s Return to Barbarians -- Zusammenfassungen -- About the authors -- Hinweise für unsere Autoren -- Backmatter