32nd ESHHS Conference

Wrzburg, 2013

Title: Towards a study of the uses of the notion of structure in human sciences
Authors:
Martina Cabra
Ramiro Tau

Abstract
In the present work we revise the most prominent uses and functions of the concept of
structure in four theoretical selected frames: linguistics by F. de Saussure and the
Linguistic Circle of Prague, anthropology from C. Lvi-Strauss, psychoanalysis by J. Lacan
and psychology by J. Piaget. The main aim is to discuss the consequences of the adoption
of the structural thesis in the abovementioned cases, analyzing their heuristic value, the
main differences among them and the conceptual compatibilities. Specifically, we intend to
show the progressive or regressive value they have had in order to set the historical basis
for an a posteriori epistemological discussion about the extensions of a structural
perspective. In the first place, we examine the original proposal that conceives the
language as a system of oppositional values, in which the relations and totality prime over
the constituent elements. This notion by Saussure establishes the main lines for a
structural linguistics. We also analyze the introduction of the concept of structure by the
Circle of Prague after Saussure and how this concept allows to differentiate the linguistic
systems. We synthesize Lvi-Strauss assertion about anthropology in order to formally
analyze myths. We stress the heuristic value of the anthropological use of the concept of
structure, starting from the extension of the formulations in linguistics. This value is
recognized in the theoretical capacity of the structural analysis to answer the question
about the relations between the cultural contingency of the mythical tales and the
universality of their form. In this way, the myth appears as the opposite of poetry in the
scale of linguistic expression and its universality resides in its belonging to the language
field. After assuming its systematic character one can understand how, even having a
completely different content, there is a dimension of the myth that is common to all its
variants: its structure. The consolidation of the method of structural analysis shows in
which way the Saussurean and Jakobsonian notion of structure can serve as a
fundamental concept to study objects of non-linguistic inquiry. In the third place and
following the notion of an empty unconscious by Lvi-Strauss, we revisit, in the early works
of Lacan, the formulations about the unconscious structured as a language and the

distance of these psychoanalytical thesis with respect to those postulated to understand

the language itself. Following Milner (2002), we discuss the solution of the paradox of this
Lacanian formulation, known as the hyperstructuralist postulate. Under the light of the new
ideas of structuralism, Lacan analyzes the analytic clinic and differentiates his conception
about subjectivity from any form of essentialism. As the fourth perspective revisited,
Piagetian genetic psychology offers a view on the structures that, instead of centering on
well-defined forms, tries to show the metamorphosis processes from which they derive.
This allows us to point out, once more, the operational value of a concept that can be
adapted to objects from diverse fields of knowledge. Our analysis allows us to anticipate
that the historical uses of the concept of structure cannot be considered a mere application
or formal extrapolation. On the contrary, in each one of the examples analyzed, the
structural perspective assumed a complete modification of the theoretical field, allowing for
the progress of the discipline. As an outlook, we discuss open questions to study the
present role of the notion of structure in human sciences and the possible relationship with
theories of complex systems.
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