“ No one can understand a game of chess if he only observes the movements that are verified in a corner of the board " (Kohle)

What does structure mean?

The concept of structure is related to the terms' form ',' configuration 'and' frame '.

;Structure
A structure designates a set of elements that are mutually supportive, or whose parts are functions of one another. Components of a structure are always interrelated. It is therefore stated that a structure is composed of members rather than parts and that it is a whole rather than a sum. In the structure there is link and function rather than adding and merging.

Structuralism

Structuralism has often been opposed to atomicism or associationism, in such a way that it speaks of a structuralist conception but also, simultaneously of a structuralist method that is cntrapated with the analytical and synthetic method of decomposition and recomposition of elements. But some authors claim that the atomist method is not necessarily opposed to the structural method, but can be used in addition.

The Gestalt

In psychology, the term structure is usually translated through the German word [ref: Gestalt]] and therefore we can speak of 'gestaltism' as synonym of 'structuralism'. This line has fundamentally criticized the basic assumptions of associationism ([behaviourism).

Structuralism and science of the spirit

Dilthey developed the notion of structure applicable to the sciences of the spirit. While in psychology 'structure' is a concept closer to 'configuration', Dilthey predominates the idea of 'meaningful connection', an idea in which the temporal and historical element is particularly relevant. Subjectively, structural totalities appear as experiences and objectively as forms of spirit. Structures as significant connections cannot be explained: they can only be described and understood.

Different conceptions

Not all philosophical lines coincide in the notion of structure as it appears in psychology and in the sciences of spirit. They even point out that this is insufficient to elucidate the very concept of structure. Russell has pointed out, for example, that the notion of structure cannot be applied to sets or collections (where the 'whole' determines the 'part') but only to relationships. The structure is then function of relational systems.

To deepen the topic

What is Structuralism?

Philosophical Implications of Structuralism

Michael Foucault and the Disciplinary Society

Notes on the influence of structuralism in anthropology

Structuralism and linguistics

Structuralism and psychology: theory of the Gestalt

por Graciela Paula Caldeiro