The etymological sense of dia-bolic (throwing apart, shattering) is largely overshadowed by the Biblical sense. Luhmann did attempt to rehabilitate it, but without much success. Baraldi et al. in Unlocking Luhmann, p. 232 relate the etymological use in systems theory to that of sym-bolic:
"The most important structural characteristic of symbolically generalizedmedia is a central →code based on a binary schematization. The code determines the form of the medium, which is thus not only symbolic, but also “diabolic” because it produces a difference between two values: for instance,between payment and non-payment (money) and true and untrue (truth). By differentiating the two values of the code, a symbolically generalized medium obtains information from every event and from every situation (e.g., some-thing is true or untrue, someone pays or does not pay)".
In Luhmann and epistemology, p. 11 Thyssen traces this sense of "diabolical" to Luhmann's Sthenographie (1990, published in Beobachter. Konvergenz der Erkenntnistheorien?):
"The operations of knowledge have no counterpart in reality since that would mean that the system would continuously dissolve itself in the system and thus be incapable of knowing. This merely provides and operative answer. The cognitive problem remains unanswered and unanswerable. However, this philosophical hitch is not fatal to Luhmann. He suspends it by asserting that “internally defined observations can be characterised as “representation” or as “sign” or as “symbol” so that they are assigned with a function for the observation of the unity of the difference between system and environment” (Luhmann 1990: 128). This unity is always diabolical because it can only be observed as a difference. Logically, this leads to paralysis. Empirically, however, it leads to time, that is, dynamics."
With no apparent connection to Luhmann or systems theory, Lynch plays with the etymological meaning in Symbiotic truth, diabolic deception, when discussing religious education in the spirit of Dewey. But she is also actively invoking the Biblical meaning:
"The metaphors of symbiosis and diabolism were inherited as the core of the human condition, and further, diabolism (to throw apart, to shatter) became associated with all damage and evil rupturing the innate wholeness and goodness of the primordial and risen creation. The created world, the cataphatic (cata: down, phatic: things spoken of — things that may be spoken of from the earth) references positive theology, or the created world which is known and experienced; the concrete reality. The uncreated world, the apophatic (apo: away, apart — things that may be spoken of apart from creation) is negative theology or silent mystery (the dark matter of creation)."
Doel's application of deconstruction to geography in
Poststructuralist Geographies: The Diabolical Art of Spatial Science can also be read as alluding to the etymological diabolism, aside from the more traditional association with temptations. As a curiosity, biochemists occasionally use etymological diabolism, along with metabolism and catabolism, as in "diabolism of lipids".
I should mention that "diabolical" in the Biblical sense is sometimes applied to Luhmann himself and his systems theory. Sloterdijk described "Luhmann’s efforts to deculpabilize human life in religious history" as playing advocatus diaboli in anthropology (see Langlitz, Devil’s advocate), and Schwanitz in Systems Theory and the Difference between Communication and Consciousness is even more explicit:
"Luhmann's systems theory thus reinvokes the tradition of Neue Sachlichkeit in the context of contemporary discussions. He takes the frontline position against the cult of inwardness, positing an ethics of principle against the condemnation of the general public as the sphere of inauthenticity and alienation from real life, as well as against the rejection of modernity by Kulturkritik. This explains to a large extent the allergic reactions from the camp of political correctness. Such reactions become particularly violent when confronted with the diabolical air of distance and superiority which mark Luhmann's rebuttals of the reproach of emotional coldness on the one hand, and the demands for moral gestures with reference to sociological enlightenment on the other."
