Dialectic of Nihilsm
Post-Structuralism and Law

Gillian Rose (Author)

9780631137085, Wiley

Paperback / softback, published 29 August 1984

244 pages
23 x 15.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.369 kg

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

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]