Synergetics is concerned with the cooperation of individual parts of a system that produces macroscopic spatial, temporal, or functional structures. The following article deals with an aspect of synergetics of particular interest: Are there general principles that govern the self-organized production of macroscopic structures irrespective of the nature of the individual parts? Unification of seemingly diverse phenomena and ideas under a general idea has been a main goal of science since ever. Be it philosophical approaches to construct a unique picture of the world, or, more specifically, theories belonging to individual sciences. In physics, well-known examples of such views arc Newton's theory of gravitation or Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism. A quite recent development has been the unification of theories of weak and electromagnetic interaction by Glashold, Salam and Weinberg. Further examples of physics out of many others are Einstein's unifying theory of space, time and matter. From other fields, we may quote Mendelejev's table of the chemical elements, or Mendel's laws of inheritance as classical examples. While this search for unifying ideas is still pursued, science itself splits into more and more disciplines each of which speaks its own language and uses its own methods. ]'he original attempt at unification seems to be more and more buried under a giant wave of new, more and more specialized results. In view of this it might seem absurd to search for any concepts capable to bring about new links between different fields of research. But this is exactly what synergetics* does. In this article I wish to describe some of its aims, its success and its limitations.