3.2 The Onion of R.Barthes

Structuralism postulates that there is a transcendental underlying structure that determines the meaning of a sign or becomes the meaning basis and center of a sign system. This is the common belief of structuralism since Saussure, and it is also the goal of all Structuralists including Barthes. But Barthes later fiercely opposed this Structuralist postulate. Barthes said, Literary work is like an onion, is composed of many layers. In the end, there is no heart, no core, no secret, no irreducible origin, some just layers of envelope.[2]

Barthes was both right and wrong. The underlying structure of Structuralism refers to the abstract Dao Li and concrete things that cannot be observed directly in the objective world. These things maybe exist. Barthes said there's no such abstract Dao Li, so the argument of Barthes was Anti-essentialism, he was arguing against the dogmatism of Objective Idealism. This Anti-essentialist view was worthy of affirmation, because the abstract Dao Li in objective world is not the source of knowledge, nor the standard and basis for testing truth, and has no value. But there can be valuable underlying structure in the subjective world, and that structure can determine the meaning of signs. If the underlying structure that Structuralism referred to was the structure in subjective world, then Structuralism can be on the right track.

The Dao Li of the objective world have no value. So the Subjective Idealists and Anti-essentialists say that there is no Dao Li in the objective world. Wang Yangming said,"There is no Li outside the heart, there is no Wu outside the heart." G.Berkeley said, Existence is to be perceived. Berkeley's Existence is only the existence of concrete substance, he only said that there is no Wu outside the heart, but did not say that there is no Li outside the heart. Wang Yangming was not only more than 200 years earlier than Berkeley, more than 100 years earlier than Descartes, but also more comprehensive than Berkeley and Descartes. In fact, we can admit the existence of the Dao Li of objective world, because we have no hard evidence for their existence or non-existence. Objective Idealism says they exist, which is dogmatic. And the question of whether they exist is not important. The important thing is that the Dao Li of the objective world have no value.