This article aims to confront two theoretical strands that evolved at the same time yet on opposite sides of the Atlantic: structural functionalism in the United States, and structuralism in France. By analyzing the "official" history of sociological theory, this article argues that the notion of a system confers both strands not only the same epistemic foundation, but also the fact that this notion has been ignored by the history of sociological theory. Secondly, it is argued that the systemic approach has since then – and even before – fromthe twentieth century onwards consolidated as a robust paradigm, which provokes a "scientific revolution" (in the sense advanced by Thomas Kuhn) which unfolds from the inside-out. Through different processes of synthesis, the systemic theory has strengthened itself as a possibility of theoretical and empirical foundation in the production of European sociology.
social theory; social systems theory; history of social sciences; epistemology
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