Keep Their Own Order

Only Stay Neat If Maintained

structure

biology

function

ology (the study of)

software

productivity

routine

being told to do something

is a closed system in which there is no place for events.

the object, its function and tis symbolism seem to be inextricably bound up with each other and to form a closed system in which there is no place for events' (levi-strauss 1962 : 26)

is a interpretive assumption grounded in the fantasy that interpretation can decipher an absolute, unchangeable meaning or truth, or origin which escapes play.

Those who defend the sanctity of structure practice an interpretation that 'dreams of deciphering a truth or an origin which escapes play' (1978: 292): they seek an absolute meaning and a history unthreatened by change. To those who desire such interpretation, 'the notion of a structure lacking any center represents the unthinkable itself' (1978: 279).

is a kind of organization present only in language (be that the language of the unconscious, of bodies, or of things).

In fact, language is the only thing that can properly be said to have structure, be it anesoteric or even non-verbal language. There is a structure of the unconscious only to the extent that the unconscious speaks and is language. There is a structure of bodies only to the extent that bodies are supposed to speak with a language which is one of the symptoms. Even things possess a structure only in so far as they maintain a silent discourse, which is the language of signs. (Deleuze 'desert island' 'structuralism' 170-1)

is a not a noun but an adjective meaning nothing other than 'like a language'.

Properly speaking this is a redundancy because 'structured' and 'as a language' for me mean exactly the same thing. Structured means my speech, my lexicon, etc., which is exactly the same as a language. (Lacan 1970 : pdf.)

is a representative of the wrongheaded metaphysics of presence in that it assumes a center, a point of presence, a fixed origin which demands stable definitions and fixed places.

a center. . . a point of presence, a fixed origin (1978: 278)... 'Its matrix . . . is the determination of Being as presence' (1978: 279). Structure, which demands stable definitions and fixed places, is both part of and equivalent to a history 'oriented toward the appropriation of truth in presence' (1978: 291).

is a short-term process whereby process, conversely, is long-term structure.

Perhaps it should be clearly stated at the outset that 'system' is not taken to be synonymous with 'structure.' rather structure is short-term process... processs is long-term structure' (vincent 'system' 99)

is a structure of representation, to be contrasted with lacan's view, whereby structure is an ahistorical subject of a drive.

For Foucault, structure is a structure of representation. For Lacan, it's ahistorical, an ahistorical subject of a drive. Lacan uses various strategies throughout his work to distance subject from structure linguistics, logic and topology, maths (knots). As he progresses, abandons structure towards a theory of the subject.

is a system of generative rules and resources that members draw upon, but also thereby change, in their continuous production and reproduction of society.

Structure is 'a system of generative rules and resources that members draw upon, but also thereby change, in their continuous production and reproduction of society' (Giddens 1976: 127).

structure, n.Definitions

structure