structuralism

functionalism

pragmatism

William James

word cloud

Ferdinand de Saussure

is a meta idea that suggests that different aspects of social life (e.g. Art, religion, myth, kinship, etc.) are constructed in their inmost nature like language.

That is, the question may be raised whether the different aspects of social life (including even art and religion) can not only be studied by the methods, and with the help of concepts similar to those employed in linguistics, but also whether they do not constitute phenomena whose inmost nature is the same as that of language. That is, in the words of Voegelin, we may ask whether there are not only 'operational' but also 'substantial comparabilities' between language and culture. (levi-strauss 1951 : 160)

is a method of analysis whereby, much like with the negative image of a photography whereby every point is changed and yet the image is fully recognizable, constant relations are drawn from elements that in themselves, in their own character, in their substance, can change.

Imagine a photograph representing a face. If you make this image go from positive to negative, in a way all the dots of the picture are going to be modified. That is to say, that all the points that were white will become black and that all the points that were black will become white. None of the points, none of the elements therefore remain identical, and yet you can recognize the face. And yet the face remains the same even though it has gone from positive to negative, and you can say that it stays the same... you recognize it because the relations between all these different elements have remained the same. Relations between the points have stayed the same, or the relations of contrast and of opposition between white and black have remained the same, even though each dot that was white has become black and each point that was black has become white. Deep down, in a very broad sense of what structuralism is, we can say that structuralism is the method of analysis that consist of drawing constant relations from elements that in themselves, in their own character, in their substance, can change . . .

is a method that, for example, sees an axe not just as a tool, but as a sign in a complex system. This is a shift from an emphasis (in anthropology) on function to communication.

An axe is not just a tool with a function, but a sign in a complex system of communication' (the scope of anthro' in Struct. anth levi 9-11) Shifted the emphasis from FUNCTION to COMMUNICATION. . . the connection between totem to clan is as arbitrary as the sound DOG to an English speaker.

is a methodological approach that attempts to show that human action is determined by structures that are unknown to the agents whose actions they determine.

for [Althusser] structuralism can be important for its attempt to show that the real emphasis of Marxism is not on man, not on human actions which can be made intelligible thorugh a phenomenological description of states of consciousness, but on structures which are not resolvable into the expressions of human agency and which are themselves unknown or 'unconscious' to the agents whose actions they determine. (Reading Althusser 175)

is a mode of analysis whereby what counts in essence are systems of relations and thus not at all the lived individual experience of people.

structuralist are people for whom what counts in essence are systems of relations and thus not at all the lived individual experience of people . . . what I do belongs, at heart like structuralism to this great questioning of the sovereignty of the subject . . .

is a point by point refutation of existentialism, focusing on the anonymous systems and structures which precondition individual experience rather than on the individual first-person experience of the self-responsible individual (i.e. Existentialism).

For many, structuralism constituted a point by point refutation of the main ideas of existentialism. Where existentialism privileged the immediate, first-person experience of the individual, structuralism focused on the anonymous systems and structures which precondition individual experience. While existentialism claimed itself to be a humanism, concerned with moral issues such as individual choice, responsibility and commitment, structuralism was a human science, operating at levels of abstraction which made questions of choice and agency seem insignificant. Where existentialism placed great emphasis on historical processes, structuralism was content to map the invariant (synchronic) structures resistant to the transformations of history. (Johnson in Simmons 'kant to levi-strauss' :240)

existentialism

experience

is a refutation of existentialism in that it is does not concern first-person humanist historical processes, but anonymous systems, non-agentive invariant structures.

For many, structuralism constituted a point by point refutation of the main ideas of existentialism. Where existentialism privileged the immediate, first-person experience of the individual, structuralism focused on the anonymous systems and structures which precondition individual experience. While existentialism claimed itself to be a humanism, concerned with moral issues such as individual choice, responsibility and commitment, structuralism was a human science, operating at levels of abstraction which made questions of choice and agency seem insignificant. Where existentialism placed great emphasis on historical processes, structuralism was content to map the invariant (synchronic) structures resistant to the transformations of history.

is a step back from structural functionalism insofar as the mind is seen as tending toward a resolution of the binaries (cultural dissonance) that it itself creates.

myth operates upon resolving binaries (or, cultural dissonance). Communication, exchange, language.

structuralism, n.Definitions

structuralism