ABSTRACT
The radical structuralist paradigm is rooted in a materialist view of the natural and social world. It is based upon an ontology which emphasises the hard and concrete nature of the reality which exists outside the minds of men. The social world, like the natural world, is seen as having an independent existence. Its facti city is taken for granted; it is seen as being material rather than spiritual in nature. This ·realist' view of social reality is supplemented by an essentially positivist epistemology which is geared to discovering and understanding the patterns and regularities which characterise the social world. Little distinction is drawn between the assumptions, aims and methods of the natural and social sciences. The radical structuralist tends to see himself as engaged in ·science', and in this endeavour shares many points of similarity with the approach of the functionalist. However, for the radical structuralist, ·science' is made to serve fundamentally different ends.
