Structuralism, although widely neglected in many philosophy encyclopedias, is one of the major foundations for semiotics and has in that context the same importance as phenomenology or analytical philosophy. Structuralism focuses on elements of structures within which the relationships of individuals can function in the boundaries of the structural order created and can be understood only within these structured inter-relationships. Emphasis is on the fact that "everything there is"—also one of Peirce's points of departure—"is structured in- and of itself".