Structure Systems

Abstract

The influences which have affected the development of cybernetics and the general systems movement have also played an important role in science and thought which is less connected to a technological orientation. These similar developments, involving the recognition of the importance of structure, are reflected in the especially European movement of structuralism, described by Piaget as ‘one of the most general trends of avant-garde movements in all the human sciences.’ Piaget defines the position of structuralism as ‘relational, that is to say as positing systems of interactions or transformations as the primary reality’ (Piaget, 1970c). Broekman recognizes structuralism as an outgrowth of deep and widespread cultural trends in Russia, France, Italy, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, but argues against its being considered a philosophical current, a school of thought, or even a movement, and characterizes it simply as an intellectual orientation and as activity based upon common emphasis on structure. He also recognizes, however, that, ‘In the writings of structuralist authors there is no consensus about what structure actually is’ (Broekman, 1971, p. 7).