Structuralism

1. Structuralism is a loosely defined term in that its proponents invoke structures which have acquired increasingly diverse significations to the extent that no common denominator is particularly evident. In mathematics, structuralism is opposed to compartmentalization, which it counteracts by recovering unity through isomorphisms. In linguistics, it is chiefly a departure from the diachronic study of isolated linguistic phenomena leading to the investigation of synchronously functioning unified language systems. In psychology, it is concerned with a focus on wholes rather than a reduction to parts.

2. Two suggested common aspects are: an ideal of intrinsic intelligibility supported by the postulate that structures are self-sufficient and are intelligible without resort to extraneous elements; a recognition that structures in general have, despite their diversity, certain common and perhaps necessary properties, including the idea of wholeness, the idea of transformation, and the idea of self-regulation. Structuralism remains essentially a method (rather than a doctrine) which is not exclusive or suppressive of other dimensions of investigation, which it tends to integrate in the way in which all integration in scientific thought comes about, namely by making for reciprocity and interaction. The application of the method results in interdisciplinary coordination, since structure is so defined that it cannot coincide with any systems of observable relationships, which are the only ones that clearly emerge through any of the existing sciences.