Compare and Contrast Structuralism and Functionalism

Theories have been composed and exposed by various philosophers to clarify their reasoning about the mind. Dualism, Behaviorism, and Identity Theory, are well-known theories supported by well-written explanations. A modern theory, Functionalism provides ample insight to the main problem philosophers deal with, the mind/body problem.

Functionalism was founded by Emile Durkheim, who continuously question norms and how society works. Functionalism is based on how society conformed to the daily functions of everyday activity. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, there are boundaries that are strict between morals and social. Functionalism focus on the natural way society works, it doesn’t try to see how society will work if changed. Functionalism in a society is just one big circle, everyone contributes to one another to keep it going.

According to Griffiths & et. al (2015), functionalism is a structure with interrelated parts designed to meet the biological and social needs of the individuals in that

Structural Functionalism states that everything in society serves a purpose, whether it is positive or negative. Structuralists look

Strucutral functionalism is a form of functional analysis. Functional analysis (or functionalism) is one of the major theoretical perspectives in sociology. In fact, many of the early giants of sociology, such as Spencer, Comte, and Durkheim were functionalists. Essentially, this perspective sees society as comprised of many parts that contribute in unique ways to the operation of the whole society.

* to explain the connections of the elements of consciousness to the nervous system. (New World Encyclopaedia 2008)

Structural functionalism is a macro level approach to study sociology (Browning, 2015). Structural functionalists believe social consensus is what holds society together; social consensus being a condition in which most members of the society agree on what would be good for everyone. Structural functionalists view society as a web of social structures, each structure being functional to fulfill it’s own needs, but dependent on all other structures for survival (Vago, 2012).

The second version of functionalism is causal-theoretical functionalism. Causal-theoretical functionalism classifies mental states in terms of their psychological theory. There are two versions of psychological theory:

A strength of the functionalist theory is that it a macro level structural theory which uses an organic analogy- using the body as a way to describe the different parts within society. Parsons identifies three similarities; System, System Needs and Functions. The System being organisms such as the human body, and society which fit together in fixed ways. For example in the

Functionalist looks at society on a macro level. It is a consensus theory and structuralists prefer to use functionalism as it agrees with their ideals and models and they prefer to look at society as a whole. Functionalists are interested in studying what family is most functional.

The functionalism theory is also known as structural functionalism and lays claim on the fact that the society is composed of interdependent portions each of which adds to the functioning of the whole society. Functionalists break

Functionalism developed out of the positivist observation that 'all positive speculations owe their first origin to the occupations of practical life' (Comte, 1865, pg 11) and the boundaries of scientific knowledge can not go further than empirically observable truths and views societies as holistic systems where 'the whole is greater than the sum of its parts' (Taylor et el, 1997, pg 662). Functionalist analysis draws on three assumptions essentially seeking to transform society into a theoretical system of reality. The first assumption is that there are zero independent parts operating within

In this class, we covered many theories. One theory is called “Structural Functionalism” and it focus centers on reducing the chance of riots or revolution. This theory works well in modern society but it did not work well in the 17 century when it was invented. Then, there were few people who believed that this is true because they were mostly living in cities and the plague was the top priority. For these reasons, I won’t be covering this theory in my paper. Another theory is “Interactionism” and they oppose the structure theories because they say that “reality is constructed” so they do not work in the confines of structures at all. “What men believe is true, becomes true in the consequences.” (Miller).

In the philosophy of mind, there are many theories that try to resolve the mind-body problem. That is, how does the mental or consciousness interact with our physical body? Do they interact at all? Are they two separate entities or one in the same? Many theories try to answer these types of questions, but the one I will be focusing on is role functionalism. When mentioning functionalism throughout, I will be referring to role functionalism. Functionalism is a theory that says mental states can be defined by their function. So, we can identify mental states with their functional states. We can come to know the function of a mental state through examining its inputs, outputs, and relation to other mental states. I will show how this theory is correct by comparing it to the identity theory. I will begin by clarifying a few important terms in relation to functionalism, lay out the theory, and then present an objection. Lastly, I will present a possible functionalist reply to the objection and conclude.

The reason this writer has the theory style of structural functionalism would be based on personal and life experiences. As previously stated this writer is mechanically minded and has had such a view point from a very young age. The view point of symbiosis, consensus and balance. Per our text this involves the view of “consensus, stability and harmony” (Claerbaut, 2015). Conflict is destructive unlike to that of the functioning of a motor, a motor its self is a whole unit, a unit that is comprised