Structuralism : Social-Idealism?

Can a society perform idealism while we aren't looking?

If Idealism and Structuralism are the same then they describe at least two
different scales of identical activities.

Idealists believe that only mental entities are real, so that physical
things exist only in the sense that they are perceived....it came to pass
that the word idea in various languages took on more and more the meaning of
"representation", "mental image", and the like. The notion that all we do is
interact internallt with each of our own limited representations.

Structuralism proposes that individual units of any system have meaning only
by virtue of their relations to one another, so that when studying a tribe
one should aquire a working knowledge of the language and life ways while
trying to eliminate perspectives from other cultures. A sensible practice of
interpreting particular observations in the light of the whole culture of
the tribe which is under investigation.

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IDEALISM

Belief that only mental entities are real, so that physical things exist
only in the sense that they are perceived. Berkeley defended his
"immaterialism" on purely empiricist grounds, while Kant and Fichte arrived
at theirs by transcendental arguments. German, English, and (to a lesser
degree) American philosophy during the nineteenth century was dominated by
the monistic absolute idealism of Hegel, Bradley, and Royce.

http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/i.htm

In discussing this term and its meaning, reference must be had to the
cognate expressions, idealist, idealized, ideal (adjective), and the ideal
(noun), all of which are derived from the Greek idéa. This signifies
"image", "figure, "form": it can be used in the sense of "likeness", or
"copy" as well as in that of "type", "model", or "pattern": it is this
latter sense that finds expression in "ideal", and "the ideal" and the
derivatives are mentioned above. In speaking of "the ideal", what we have in
mind is not a copy of any perceptible object, but a type. The artist is said
to "idealize" his subject when he represents it as a fairer, nobler, more
perfect than it is in reality.

Idealism in life is the characteristic of those who regard the ideas of
truth and right, goodness and beauty, as standards and directive forces.
This signification betrays the influence of Plato, who made idea a technical
term in philosophy. According to him the visible world is simply a copy of a
supersensible, intelligible, ideal world, and consequently "things" are but
the impress stamped on reality by that which is of a higher, spiritual
nature.

...So it came to pass that the word idea in various languages took on more
and more the meaning of "representation", "mental image", and the like.
Hence too, there was gradually introduced the terminology which we find in
the writings of Berkeley, and according to which idealism is the doctrine
that ascribes reality to our ideas, i.e. our representations, but denies the
reality of the physical world. This sort of idealism is just the reverse of
that which was held by the philosophers of antiquity and their Christian
successors; it does away with the reality of ideal principles by confining
them exclusively to the thinking subject; it is a spurious idealism which
deserves rather the name "phenomenalism" (phenomenon, "appearance", as
opposed to noumenon, "the object of thought").

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07634a.htm

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STRUCTURALISM

According to Northope Fyre, "structuralism as the term suggests; is
concerned with structures, and examining the general laws by which they
work".(p.82) In other words, structuralism is like a framework; a fixed way
of expressing something equivalent to the term, "form".

On the contrary, Eagleton's intendment believes that "individual units of
any system have meaning only by virtue of their relations to one
another".(p.82) Proposing that a characteristic is insignificant, without
the goodness of connection with others. Actually, there is no one definite
expression of structuralism. A general inclination is another system of
ideas. It is scarcely an eminent piece of writing. Structuralism is also a
method of inquiry, which can relate to an entire extent of words or either
objects with meaning.

As mentioned earlier, structuralism is consonant to the term "formalism".
Formalism has an outward appearance of something as distinguished from, the
substance which it is made. For example, with literature, a poem is based on
the outside meaning. In order to interpret what the poet means, a person
would have to dig deep, deep into the poem.

http://www.english.ilstu.edu/Strickland/214/posf97/maltbia2.htm

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What is Structuralism?

Structuralism is the name that is given to a wide range of discourses that
study underlying structures of signification. Signification occurs wherever
there is a meaningful event or in the practise of some meaningful action.
Hence the phrase, "signifying practices." A meaningful event might include
any of following: writing or reading a text; getting married; having a
discussion over a cup of coffee; a battle. Most (if not all) meaningful
events involve either a document or an exchange that can be documented. This
would be called a "text." Texts might include any of the following: a news
broadcast; an advertisement; an edition of Shakespeare's King Lear; the
manual for my new washing machine; the wedding vows; a feature film. From
the point of view of structuralism all texts, all meaningful events and all
signifying practices can be analysed for their underlying structures. Such
an analysis would reveal the patterns that characterise the system that
makes such texts and practices possible. We cannot see a structure or a
system per se. In fact it would be very awkward for us if we were aware at
all times of the structures that make our signifying practices possible.
Rather they remain unconscious but necessary aspects of our whole way of
being what we are. Structuralism therefore promises to offer insights into
what makes us the way we are.

http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljwp/structuralism.htm

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