Structuralism: key ideas

Structuralism, as a current of knowledge, proposes that everything that human beings say, do, think or feel is supported by a structure of underlying common rules. Delve into the study of this interesting philosophy.

The analysis of human experience, language and culture has been fundamental to knowing ourselves as a species. There are several approaches that come together at this point and strive to understand the rules that govern human thought and action; one of the most important is structuralism.

It is an approach to research and reflection in the social sciences that emerged in the mid-20th century in Europe. However, it is usually considered that Its foundations were laid in 1916.at work General linguistics course written by the philosopher Ferdinand de Saussure. In this article we will see the most important ideas of this school of thought.

“Science is an exploration of very difficult questions.”

-Noam Chomsky-

Definition of structuralism

Structuralism is a movement that focuses especially on science – how we know – from a social perspective. His works are characterized by giving an angular role to language as a backbone element. in the development of our activity.

The emergence and expansion of structuralism has been very important for the constitution of the main currents of thought in today’s world. Although it is not as recognized as other movements, its impact is noticeable in various disciplines, such as anthropology or sociology.

The impact of this discipline is not limited only to the theoretical sphere; It also has important implications in practice.

The linguist Ferdinand de Saussure laid the foundations of the structuralist perspective by considering the need to build logical simulations that allow us to understand facts of social life; sets of implicit rules that govern the functioning of the humanespecially in relation to the meanings of language.

However, his ideas were not fully developed until the 60s of the 20th century.

Thus, as a conclusion to this section, we will define the structuralist movement as the methodological and theoretical approach that proposes the maxim that In every sociocultural system there are structures or forms of organization that condition what happens within said system..

Characteristics of structuralism

To better understand what structuralism is about, we summarize its defining characteristics as follows:

According to structuralism, andHuman behavior is understood in terms of a system where rules of behavior have been established – implicitly and explicitly –. These rules are completely artificial and make sense to the extent that all components of that culture understand those behaviors. For example, in Western societies slurping soup is rude, however, in the East it means the opposite, since it is a positive recognition of the cook. He defends that The human being is the one who gives meaning to the facts, actions and customs that he experiences.When it emerged (in the 1920s) it was a linguistic tool, but years later became a method of social sciences.

Key ideas of structuralism

Although the term and its approach may scare us, when they are known your key ideas and from them a map is created, understanding the hypotheses with which it works is not such a high challenge.

On the other hand, it is enough to look at our society and compare it with others to find structures that differentiate them. One of the central proposals of Structuralism is, in this regard, that These differences define us and are the origin of much of what happens around us..

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Observation

The main research method of structuralism is observation. However, it does not try to divide reality into smaller parts in order to see them better. On the contrary, tries to understand culture as a wholealso understanding the relationships between its different elements.

Language as a system

In this theory, Language is a system formed by a set of units articulated together. That is, language is understood as a set of elements that have various functional relationships between them. Thus, structuralists study language as more than the simple sum of its parts; as an ’emergent’ process.

Descriptive approach and inductive method

This movement carries out studies from a descriptive approach, for which analyzes social structures and the relationships established between them, thus arriving at a description of them. Furthermore, he resorts to the inductive method, founding theories based on evidence found in society.

Methodological perspective of structuralism

Structuralism is capable, by itself, of offer a methodology that provides perspectives and approaches to other human sciences. Hence its influence on linguistics, history or cultural anthropology is so important.

Another aspect of the context of the structuralist movement lies in its antecedents: in France, previously, existentialism was gaining strength – led by Sartre – which took totally different approaches to what is human. But something changed in the 60s, when the French philosopher De Saussure looked towards Marxism and generated from it the context that led to the birth of structuralism as such.

Since that moment, important philosophers and anthropologists have been part of the movement, such as Noam Chomsky, Jean Piaget or Claude Levi Strauss, among many others. Understanding their works can help us in our crusade, as human beings, for better understand the world around us today.

Nor should we forget that this movement was born in a very specific context: at the height of Marxism. However, the latter shows a somewhat different notion of science than the former; its philosophical ramifications are also different.