STRUCTRALISM & BINARY OPPOSITION

For this blog I have decided to look at both subject matters and break them down in a attempt to understand their origins and core beliefs.


Structuralism looks at the way people conceive the world by means of investigating the way they organize their knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
Structuralism is an evolution of semiotic principles and some original ideas appeared in the studies of  Linguistics (Ferdinand de Saussure), Narratology (Vladimir Propp) and Anthropology (Claude Levi-Strauss).

*Structuralism was founded on the basis of opposing ideas that related to humanistic characteristics.

Structuralism deviates from Ontological and Epistemological ideas to create a new perceptive direction in which to observe meaning. Certain human behaviours are perceived in a anti-metaphysical manor to determine the motive of the action, which (in structuralism) is said to derive from deep rooted structures.

Ontology - study of  "Being" (ideas come from a higher existence)

                      *Plato believed in the ultimate ideas and essences of everything existed in the heavens, he believed that ideas and thoughts were not man made but were a product of some divine power.

Epistemology - study of  "Knowing" (ideas come from within)

Early Structuralism cited that metaphysical meaning (philosophical and theological) does not come from above but proceeds upward from material structures. Proto-structuralist Karl Marks believed that certain elements 

(Art. Religion ect.) in life are not produced due to divine ideas and concepts but are products of physical, material and socio-economical forces which are then be developed upon.  

Structuralism also rejects the "subjective self" (conciousness/ego) as the final source of meaning, instead conciousness itself could be said to be an outcome of the structures within our unconscious. This would make our concious mind a product of structuralism as a posed to a source of knowledge.

**These "Structures" that are spoken about are not made up of certain 'things' but are defined by the differences that are created when they are combined/grouped.

Example; when looking at Binary, the numbers which make it mean nothing on their own,

once combined however the differences between the 1's and 0's make a meaningful structure.

Binary Opposition splits everything into two opposing categories i.e. Life - Death

                                                           Hot - Cold

                                                                Male - Female

                                                           Land - Sky

These Binary Oppositions allow for ease of explanation and comparison in communication.

Basic structuralist ideas use the rigid boundaries of  Binary Opposition and in turn share principles with  Ideological concepts. Binary Opposition is very ideological by the way its uses the strict "one or the other" method of finding meaning, that things are very certain and can be divide because of this.
These methods can not always be seen as accurate as they dont take into account personal experience, social trends ect. which is a necessary process in certain circumstances.

Once these elements of Binary Opposition have been understood it is now possible to question them, this is where the rigid structures can become more blurred. Examples of this in the lecture were heavily focus on the idea of "Cyborgs" which involves the merging of 'human' and 'mechanical' aspects.