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 Nietzsche and Heidegger, and by sociology in general.

Dialectic of Nihilism shows that this anti-metaphysical writing always appears in historically specific jurisprudential terms, which themselves found and recapitulate metaphysical categories. Gillian Rose 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.