4 differences between structuralism and post-structuralism

In this one-TEACHER lesson we are going to study the differences between structuralism and poststructuralism. Both currents develop in France in the middle of the 20th century and break with other philosophical trends such as historicism, humanism, essentialism, phenomenology, existentialism...

However, between structuralism and post-structuralism there are some differences: For structuralism the structure is the center of everything, while not for post-structuralists, there are variables that make it impossible for an analysis to be objective.

If you want to know more about the differences that exist between these two currents, keep reading this article Start the class!

The time has come to study the four most important differences between these two currents.

1. Its origin

Structuralism was born in the field of linguistics and has as its founder Saussere and his work linguistics course (1916). Where it is established that language is a system of signs with meaning and significant, that it is necessary to find the structure of these signs (what remains hidden) and that it is necessary to differentiate between language and speaks: the first is the form of structuring that does not change and the second is the functioning or the form of communication.

Post-structuralism, unlike structuralism, does not arise directly in the linguistic field but rather within structuralism itself. He makes a strong critique of structuralism by establishing that the structure is not the center of everythingor, but the poststructuralism it will never fully emerge from structuralism.

2. The structure

For the structuralists, the structure is present in our unconscious and is the center of everything, the one that shapes our culture and ourselves. A system that structures our relationships and transforms them.

Therefore, youThe entire system is made up of structures. (politics, economy, ideology, culture...) and these determine the position of each element. Organizing human, social, economic and cultural activity.

Thus, the goal of the structuralists is discover the structuress that underlie and hide in our unconscious to explain sociocultural reality objectively.

However, for post-structuralists the structure exists, but it is not the center of the sociocultural system. For this reason, they are going to question the objectivity the neutrality and logic that had been inserted into the study of the social sciences with structuralism. That is to say, structures are not something objective and may be biased by one's own interpretations, history or culture, and therefore, there is subjectivity in its meaning.

3. The sociocultural study

From structuralism it is established that allcultures and societies have the same mentality, that is, they share structures. They have a common syntax/code that manifests itself differently depending on the culture, therefore, the purpose of the structuralist method is to decode these manifestation structures.

However, for poststructuralists there is a subjectivity and not everything is reduced to some structures present in the unconscious, giving greater importance to the subject, to the context in which the individual develops and the fact that not all cultures have the same mindset/structure.

4. Reality

structuralismstates that reality is a neutral representation and that has a symbolic nature, determined by the language as a symbolic order. And this symbolic order is what constitutes us: the linguistic structure is expressed through us.

On the other hand, poststructuralists claim that the reality is not a neutral representation, but it is a construction carried out under the idea of ​​objectivity. In this way, reality may be biased by language, interpretations of the individual, history or culture, and therefore, You will never be able to access an objective reality.

However, for both doctrines the language is the one create reality because it shapes people's thoughts, forges the self and the forms/modes of representation (ways of creating, ordering and describing reality).

Before studying the differences between these two philosophical currents, it is necessary that you know their definition. For this reason, at unTEACHER we offer you two brief definitions:

• Structuralism: Philosophical current that establishes that in all sociocultural systems underlies a structure (forms of organization, neutral and objective) that condition its operation. The structure stands as the center of everything, the one that conditions our culture and the individual.
• Poststructuralism: Philosophical current that was born under the auspices of structuralism and that is defined as a movement that establishes that the structure is not the center of everything and that it is not the only thing that conditions our culture and the individual, since there is subjectivity and the structures they may be biased.

Structuralism and post-structuralism develop in France during the second half of the 20th century within the social Sciences. Having a special incidence in sociology, anthropology, philosophy, history/archeology or the literature of Europe and the United States.

Both theoretical and epistemological movements are contemporary to may 68 (student protests against capitalism and imperialism). Although structuralism was born a little earlier (1950s-1960s) and post-structuralism a little later, as a current critical of the structuralism of Cluade Lévi-Strauss, but without leaving it entirely. Hence draw the boundaries between structuralism and post-structuralism be so complex

representatives of structuralism

The main representatives of structuralism are: Ferdinand de Saussere (1857-1913), Cluade Levi-Strauss (1908-2009), J. Lacan (1901-1981), L. althusser (1918-1990), R. Jakobson (1896-1982), M) or E.Benveniste (1902-1976).

Representatives of post-structuralism

Philosophers of the Frankfurt School , Roland Barthés (1915-1980), Michel Foucault(1926.1984), Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), jurgen Habernas (1929), jean baudrillard (1929-2007), Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), Judith Butler (1956) or Julia Kristeva (1941). Although many of them refused to be labeled as post-structuralists

Harris, M. The development of anthropological theory. S.XXI.2002

Xirau, R. Indroduction to the philosophy's history. 2015