this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2025
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Philosophy

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[โ€“] yesman@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The problem with structuralism is that it overvalues language. Structuralists seem to forget that words are signfiers and signs of meaning, not the source of meaning.

The word "car" points to all kinds of meaning, but you can't drive it home.

[โ€“] mrh@mander.xyz 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

nice name

Structuralists seem to forget that words are signfiers and signs of meaning, not the source of meaning

Wouldn't that only apply to ontic structuralists? They say the structures themselves are the real things. But epistemic structuralists merely say that the kind of knowledge we can have about reality is structural knowledge (but the world itself might be full of non-structural objects).