The first chapter (Structural method and dialectical method) is a critique of Maurice Godelier's article Structure and Contradiction in Capital published in Les Temps Modernes. Godelier sought to show that Marxism was compatible with structural analysis of authors such as Claude Levi-Strauss. Seve's argues that structuralism can be a useful but limited tool which is ultimately incompatible with dialectics. Seve's article was originally published in La Pensee in 1967. Godelier responded to Seve's criticisms in a subsequent article in La Pensee and Seve's response, in the same publication, is the second chapter of the book (Response to Maurice Godelier, 1969). The third chapter, On Structuralism, was originally published in World Marxist Review in 1971. The fourth chapter, Once Again: Structuralism or Dialectics, published in 1983, reflects further on the nature of dialectics. The final Chapter, Form, Formation, Transformation, published in 1984 is a previously unpublished essay on the evolution of the concept of form from Aristotle to Marx. It develops some of the arguments of the earlier essays especially on the nature of contradiction.