Dialectic of Nihilsm

This book fundamentally challenges the radical credentials of post-structuralism. Though Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze claim to have 'deconstructed' metaphysics, their work has much in common with previous attempts to 'end' the metaphysical tradition, from Kant to Nietzshe and Heidegger, and by sociology in general.

Gillian Rose shows that this anti-metaphysical writing always appears in historically specific jurisprudential terms, which themselves found and recapitulate metaphysical categories. She reconsiders post-structuralism in this light and assesses the relationship between deconstruction and the earlier structuralism of Saussure and Levi-Strauss. She argues in conclusion that the choice between post-structuralist nihilism and Hegelian and Marxist dialectic is spurious. Introduction: Legalism without law

Part One: Natural law and repetition

From metaphysics to jurisprudence

Law and the categories

Time or history?

Self-perficient nihilism

Natural law and repitition

Part Two: Legalism and nihilism

The new Bergsonism: Deleuze

Structuralism and law: Saussure and Levi-Strauss

Law and writing: Derrida

Legalism and power: Foucault

Conclusion: Dialectic of nihilism

Gillian Rose is Reader in Sociology in the School of European Studies at the University of Sussex, and author of The Melancholy Science: An Introduction to the Thought of Theodore W. Adorno and Hegel Contra Sociology. This book fundamentally challenges the radical credentials of post-structuralism. Though Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze claim to have 'deconstructed' metaphysics, their work has much in common with previous attempts to 'end' the metaphysical tradition, from Kant to Nietzshe and Heidegger, and by sociology in general.

Gillian Rose shows that this anti-metaphysical writing always appears in historically specific jurisprudential terms, which themselves found and recapitulate metaphysical categories. She reconsiders post-structuralism in this light and assesses the relationship between deconstruction and the earlier structuralism of Saussure and Levi-Strauss. She argues in conclusion that the choice between post-structuralist nihilism and Hegelian and Marxist dialectic is spurious.