Le structuralisme. (The structuralism). 11ème éd. 11ème éd. (Le structuralisme.) (French) Zbl 0880.03001

Piaget, Jean

Que sais-je? 1311. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. 128 p. (1996).

This is the eleventh edition of a book originally published in 1968. To the author, structuralism seemed to mean only the prevalence of certain kinds of ‘structures’. The latter are required to consist of a totality, together with a system of transformations and some sort of self-regulating mechanism. In particular cases, these notions are given very loose interpretations. Chapters are devoted to structuralism in mathematics and logic, physics and biology, psychology, linguistics, the social sciences, and philosophy. The author’s concept of structuralism has little to do with the current use of that term in philosophy of mathematics, according to which mathematics has to do only with structures or patterns and not with any distinguished underlying objects. Unfortunately, even the author’s treatment of the occurrence of structures in various domains is rather superficial and displays the pretentious vacuity that one is accustomed to finding in the writings of ‘scholars’ like Derrida, Foucault, and Lacan.

Reviewer: E.Mendelson (Flushing)

MSC:

03A05	Philosophical and critical aspects of logic and foundations
00A30	Philosophy of mathematics
03-01	Introductory exposition (textbooks, tutorial papers, etc.) pertaining to mathematical logic and foundations

Keywords:

structuralism