Saussurian Sructuralism, Origins and Influence on the Methodology of Human Sciences

The influence of Saussure on the twentieth century thought and modern approaches to the study of language has often been acknowledged by great figures in the social sciences and humanities، to whom structural linguistics has been considered as a major science، a philosophy، or a long-awaited methodology for social sciences and humanities. Despite a great number of studies aimed at uncovering the history of theoretical linguistics، there has been little attempt at tracing it to the philosophical context in which it was originally developed. This is particularly true of research carried out in Iran. The present study aims at first revisiting the Saussurian concept of the linguistic sign and the particular approach to the study of language known to us as ‘structural’; and seond، exploring the lines of thought linking Saussure to Rousseaue and Hegel، and from another perspective linking him to rationalist thinkers.