Structuralism and its discontents: ambivalences of the quest forjust representation in the field of the arbitrariness of the sign

The article aims to discuss a certain discontent in structuralist thought-especially in Derridian deconstruction and its heirs-according to which structures are simultaneously and paradoxically the origin and cause of all freedom and all oppression. We question this hypothesis by dividing the article into three parts: first, we analyze Saussure's theses on the arbitrariness of the sign based on the most recent reading by Patrice Maniglier (2023); then, we discuss to what extent Saussurean theses resume concepts and ideas from Plato's Cratylus; in the third, we point to some aporias of Derridian deconstruction in dealing with the concept of justice, based on the clash with Saussure and Plato. Therefore, we conclude that the current discontents in structuralism seem to derive from a hyperbolic use of the metaphors of "justice" and "violence" applied to the problem of representation, so that retains Platonic hypothesis of the "correction" and "justice" of names.