Duncan Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262870
- eISBN:
- 9780191734892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262870.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter focuses on the work of Carl Schmitt during the Weimar Republic, though the limiting of focus to this period requires a few preliminary words. Chronologically, the movement from Imperial ...
More
This chapter focuses on the work of Carl Schmitt during the Weimar Republic, though the limiting of focus to this period requires a few preliminary words. Chronologically, the movement from Imperial Germany to the Weimar Republic roughly coincides with Weber's untimely death in 1920. Schmitt's rapid rise to prominence within the academy and ‘high society’ during the second half of the 1920s, up to his famous role in the Preiβenshclag of 1932, provides one reason for concentrating on his writings in this period. Furthermore, the discussion suggests that the case that his Weimar writings bear the closest resemblance to Weber's thought.Less
This chapter focuses on the work of Carl Schmitt during the Weimar Republic, though the limiting of focus to this period requires a few preliminary words. Chronologically, the movement from Imperial Germany to the Weimar Republic roughly coincides with Weber's untimely death in 1920. Schmitt's rapid rise to prominence within the academy and ‘high society’ during the second half of the 1920s, up to his famous role in the Preiβenshclag of 1932, provides one reason for concentrating on his writings in this period. Furthermore, the discussion suggests that the case that his Weimar writings bear the closest resemblance to Weber's thought.
Duncan Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262870
- eISBN:
- 9780191734892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262870.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter discusses the thought of Franz Neumann, up to and including the publication of his famous work Behemoth in 1942. It shows how Neumann's legal and constitutional ideas developed largely ...
More
This chapter discusses the thought of Franz Neumann, up to and including the publication of his famous work Behemoth in 1942. It shows how Neumann's legal and constitutional ideas developed largely from Schmitt's terms of reference, and how his account of rationality and the modern state drew upon Weber. This cross-fertilization of conceptual ideas, coupled with his own political sympathy for a socialist state under a fully democratized Weimar Constitution, offers an intriguing context within which to explore his route to Behemoth. This chapter also presents a detailed assessment of his analysis of National Socialism.Less
This chapter discusses the thought of Franz Neumann, up to and including the publication of his famous work Behemoth in 1942. It shows how Neumann's legal and constitutional ideas developed largely from Schmitt's terms of reference, and how his account of rationality and the modern state drew upon Weber. This cross-fertilization of conceptual ideas, coupled with his own political sympathy for a socialist state under a fully democratized Weimar Constitution, offers an intriguing context within which to explore his route to Behemoth. This chapter also presents a detailed assessment of his analysis of National Socialism.
Duncan Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262870
- eISBN:
- 9780191734892
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262870.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This book offers a broad-ranging re-interpretation of the understanding of politics and the state in the writings of three major German thinkers, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Franz Neumann. It ...
More
This book offers a broad-ranging re-interpretation of the understanding of politics and the state in the writings of three major German thinkers, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Franz Neumann. It rejects the typical separation of these writers on the basis of their allegedly incompatible ideological positions, and suggests instead that once properly located in their historical context, the tendentious character of these interpretative boundaries becomes clear. The book interprets the conceptions of politics and the state in the writings of these three thinkers by means of an investigation of their adaptation and modification of particular German traditions of thinking about the state, or Staatsrechtslehre. Indeed, when the theoretical considerations of this state-legal theory are combined with their contemporary political criticism, a richer and more deeply textured account of the issues that engaged the attention of Weber, Schmitt and Neumann is possible. Thus, the broad range of subjects discussed in this book include parliamentarism and democracy in Germany, academic freedom and political economy, political representation, cultural criticism and patriotism, and the relationship between rationality, law, sovereignty and the constitution. The study attempts to restore a sense of proportion to the discussion of the three authors' writings, focusing on the extensive ideas that they shared rather than insisting on their necessary ideological separation. It is a detailed re-appraisal of a crucial moment in modern intellectual history, and highlights the profound importance of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Franz Neumann for the history of European ideas.Less
This book offers a broad-ranging re-interpretation of the understanding of politics and the state in the writings of three major German thinkers, Max Weber, Carl Schmitt, and Franz Neumann. It rejects the typical separation of these writers on the basis of their allegedly incompatible ideological positions, and suggests instead that once properly located in their historical context, the tendentious character of these interpretative boundaries becomes clear. The book interprets the conceptions of politics and the state in the writings of these three thinkers by means of an investigation of their adaptation and modification of particular German traditions of thinking about the state, or Staatsrechtslehre. Indeed, when the theoretical considerations of this state-legal theory are combined with their contemporary political criticism, a richer and more deeply textured account of the issues that engaged the attention of Weber, Schmitt and Neumann is possible. Thus, the broad range of subjects discussed in this book include parliamentarism and democracy in Germany, academic freedom and political economy, political representation, cultural criticism and patriotism, and the relationship between rationality, law, sovereignty and the constitution. The study attempts to restore a sense of proportion to the discussion of the three authors' writings, focusing on the extensive ideas that they shared rather than insisting on their necessary ideological separation. It is a detailed re-appraisal of a crucial moment in modern intellectual history, and highlights the profound importance of Max Weber, Carl Schmitt and Franz Neumann for the history of European ideas.
John T. Hamilton
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691157528
- eISBN:
- 9781400846474
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691157528.003.0014
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter begins by discussing Heidegger's thoughts on security. For Heidegger notions of security should be treated with utmost caution. If human being is a manifestation of Being—Being as Time, ...
More
This chapter begins by discussing Heidegger's thoughts on security. For Heidegger notions of security should be treated with utmost caution. If human being is a manifestation of Being—Being as Time, self-disclosing and self-concealing—then any project designed to contain Being or evade its destabilizing call would be a failure in thinking. The chapter then turns to Carl Schmitt and the ambivalence of security that underlies his political theorizations. On the surface, Schmitt's much discussed notions of sovereignty, the exception, and decisionism reflect a committed belief in the primacy of state safety classically expressed in the Ciceronian formula salus populi suprema lex—“The safety of the people is the highest law.” However, Schmitt at times challenges this prioritization of security, whose privative force, in his view, tends to become manifest in the way the private sphere dangerously impinges upon state policy.Less
This chapter begins by discussing Heidegger's thoughts on security. For Heidegger notions of security should be treated with utmost caution. If human being is a manifestation of Being—Being as Time, self-disclosing and self-concealing—then any project designed to contain Being or evade its destabilizing call would be a failure in thinking. The chapter then turns to Carl Schmitt and the ambivalence of security that underlies his political theorizations. On the surface, Schmitt's much discussed notions of sovereignty, the exception, and decisionism reflect a committed belief in the primacy of state safety classically expressed in the Ciceronian formula salus populi suprema lex—“The safety of the people is the highest law.” However, Schmitt at times challenges this prioritization of security, whose privative force, in his view, tends to become manifest in the way the private sphere dangerously impinges upon state policy.
Duncan Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262870
- eISBN:
- 9780191734892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262870.003.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This is a book about how conceptions of the modern state, politics and the political were understood, developed and modified by Max Weber (1864–1920), Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) and Franz Neumann ...
More
This is a book about how conceptions of the modern state, politics and the political were understood, developed and modified by Max Weber (1864–1920), Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) and Franz Neumann (1900–1954) during the period 1890 to 1945 in Germany. It is an attempt to outline their criticisms and modifications of a broad, peculiarly German tradition of Staatsrechtslehre, or state-legal theorizing. The predominantly legalistic nature of this type of thinking forms both the background to, and the bases of, the understandings of the modern state and politics found in their writings. Yet, all three writers argued that such thinking could not adequately adapt to the problems raised by an era of mass-based politics. Tracing the reasoning behind their movement away from this broad tradition of Staatsrechtslehre therefore provides an overarching context for this work.Less
This is a book about how conceptions of the modern state, politics and the political were understood, developed and modified by Max Weber (1864–1920), Carl Schmitt (1888–1985) and Franz Neumann (1900–1954) during the period 1890 to 1945 in Germany. It is an attempt to outline their criticisms and modifications of a broad, peculiarly German tradition of Staatsrechtslehre, or state-legal theorizing. The predominantly legalistic nature of this type of thinking forms both the background to, and the bases of, the understandings of the modern state and politics found in their writings. Yet, all three writers argued that such thinking could not adequately adapt to the problems raised by an era of mass-based politics. Tracing the reasoning behind their movement away from this broad tradition of Staatsrechtslehre therefore provides an overarching context for this work.
Victoria Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226083872
- eISBN:
- 9780226083902
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226083902.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter explores Carl Schmitt’s engagement with early modern texts, in particular Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It argues that Schmitt’s early work on Hobbes was influenced ...
More
This chapter explores Carl Schmitt’s engagement with early modern texts, in particular Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It argues that Schmitt’s early work on Hobbes was influenced by Leo Strauss and that, in his later work, Schmitt finds in Hobbes a harmful emphasis on poiesis, whereas he sees Hamlet, by contrast, as dramatizing a genuine understanding of “the political.”Less
This chapter explores Carl Schmitt’s engagement with early modern texts, in particular Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It argues that Schmitt’s early work on Hobbes was influenced by Leo Strauss and that, in his later work, Schmitt finds in Hobbes a harmful emphasis on poiesis, whereas he sees Hamlet, by contrast, as dramatizing a genuine understanding of “the political.”
Fred Dallmayr
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813125718
- eISBN:
- 9780813135397
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813125718.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
In addition to war, terrorism, and unchecked military violence, modernity is also subject to less visible but no less venomous conflicts. Global in nature, these “culture wars” exacerbate the ...
More
In addition to war, terrorism, and unchecked military violence, modernity is also subject to less visible but no less venomous conflicts. Global in nature, these “culture wars” exacerbate the tensions between tradition and innovation, virtue and freedom. This book charts a course beyond these persistent but curable dichotomies. Consulting diverse fields such as philosophy, literature, political science, and religious studies, the book equates modern history with a process of steady pluralization. This process, which the book calls “integral pluralism,” requires new connections and creates ethical responsibilities. The book critically compares integral pluralism against the theories of Carl Schmitt, the Religious Right, international “realism,” and so-called political Islam. Drawing on the works of James, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Merleau-Ponty, it offers solutions for the conflicts of the modern world.Less
In addition to war, terrorism, and unchecked military violence, modernity is also subject to less visible but no less venomous conflicts. Global in nature, these “culture wars” exacerbate the tensions between tradition and innovation, virtue and freedom. This book charts a course beyond these persistent but curable dichotomies. Consulting diverse fields such as philosophy, literature, political science, and religious studies, the book equates modern history with a process of steady pluralization. This process, which the book calls “integral pluralism,” requires new connections and creates ethical responsibilities. The book critically compares integral pluralism against the theories of Carl Schmitt, the Religious Right, international “realism,” and so-called political Islam. Drawing on the works of James, Heidegger, Gadamer, and Merleau-Ponty, it offers solutions for the conflicts of the modern world.
Hans Joas and Wolfgang Knöbl
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691150840
- eISBN:
- 9781400844746
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691150840.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Theory
This chapter shows that social theory's engagement with the phenomenon of war, which had already begun before the First World War, did not continue in any substantial way after 1918. War quickly ...
More
This chapter shows that social theory's engagement with the phenomenon of war, which had already begun before the First World War, did not continue in any substantial way after 1918. War quickly vanished from the radar of those subjects in which social theories find their home. In Germany between the world wars, it was Carl Schmitt who provided the most provocative ideas on the problem of war; in France, it was Roger Caillois; and in the United States, it was initially political émigrés, like Hans Speier, who produced the first significant studies of militarism and “total war.” The chapter considers how the establishment of military sociology caused sociology in general, and sociological theory in particular, to turn away from war once again.Less
This chapter shows that social theory's engagement with the phenomenon of war, which had already begun before the First World War, did not continue in any substantial way after 1918. War quickly vanished from the radar of those subjects in which social theories find their home. In Germany between the world wars, it was Carl Schmitt who provided the most provocative ideas on the problem of war; in France, it was Roger Caillois; and in the United States, it was initially political émigrés, like Hans Speier, who produced the first significant studies of militarism and “total war.” The chapter considers how the establishment of military sociology caused sociology in general, and sociological theory in particular, to turn away from war once again.
John P. McCormick
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691135106
- eISBN:
- 9781400846788
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691135106.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Public lawyers in the Weimar Republic conceptualized the law as a novel means of performing the following pressing tasks that confronted state and society in the twentieth century: the regulation of ...
More
Public lawyers in the Weimar Republic conceptualized the law as a novel means of performing the following pressing tasks that confronted state and society in the twentieth century: the regulation of an industrial economy, the amelioration of economic inequality, and the negotiation of cultural disagreement. During the Kaiserreich, monarchically legitimated elites unilaterally executed comparable tasks. However, in the Weimar Republic, previously excluded social groups—for instance, those represented by the Catholic, Social Democratic, Communist and National Socialist parties—now vied with traditionally represented social forces in electoral and parliamentary fora to formulate and direct regulatory, redistributive, and socially integrative policy. This chapter focuses on the fraught but not necessarily hopeless relationship of law and the welfare state or Sozialstaat. It traces the way liberal and social democratic lawyers like Richard Thoma and Hermann Heller attempted to constitutionally legitimize novel efforts at political regulation, economic redistribution and social integration while avoiding the intellectual either/or's insisted upon by the dominant legal theorists of the epoch, Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt.Less
Public lawyers in the Weimar Republic conceptualized the law as a novel means of performing the following pressing tasks that confronted state and society in the twentieth century: the regulation of an industrial economy, the amelioration of economic inequality, and the negotiation of cultural disagreement. During the Kaiserreich, monarchically legitimated elites unilaterally executed comparable tasks. However, in the Weimar Republic, previously excluded social groups—for instance, those represented by the Catholic, Social Democratic, Communist and National Socialist parties—now vied with traditionally represented social forces in electoral and parliamentary fora to formulate and direct regulatory, redistributive, and socially integrative policy. This chapter focuses on the fraught but not necessarily hopeless relationship of law and the welfare state or Sozialstaat. It traces the way liberal and social democratic lawyers like Richard Thoma and Hermann Heller attempted to constitutionally legitimize novel efforts at political regulation, economic redistribution and social integration while avoiding the intellectual either/or's insisted upon by the dominant legal theorists of the epoch, Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt.
David G. Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474454766
- eISBN:
- 9781474480611
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474454766.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter explores the debates within Russian conservative thought between official ‘liberal’ conservatism and a more radical version that was heavily influenced by the work of Carl Schmitt. The ...
More
This chapter explores the debates within Russian conservative thought between official ‘liberal’ conservatism and a more radical version that was heavily influenced by the work of Carl Schmitt. The chapter explores different ways in which Schmitt has gained influence in Russian political thought, first through his influence in scholarship, particularly through the work of Alexander Filippov; second, through the populist polemics of Alexander Dugin; and finally through a group of ‘new conservative’ thinkers around Mikhail Remizov.Less
This chapter explores the debates within Russian conservative thought between official ‘liberal’ conservatism and a more radical version that was heavily influenced by the work of Carl Schmitt. The chapter explores different ways in which Schmitt has gained influence in Russian political thought, first through his influence in scholarship, particularly through the work of Alexander Filippov; second, through the populist polemics of Alexander Dugin; and finally through a group of ‘new conservative’ thinkers around Mikhail Remizov.
Benjamin A. Schupmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198791614
- eISBN:
- 9780191833991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198791614.003.0003
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
Chapter 2 reinterprets Schmitt’s concept of the political. Schmitt argued that Weimar developments, especially the rise of mass movements politically opposed to the state and constitution, ...
More
Chapter 2 reinterprets Schmitt’s concept of the political. Schmitt argued that Weimar developments, especially the rise of mass movements politically opposed to the state and constitution, demonstrated that the state did not have any sort of monopoly over the political, contradicting the arguments made by predominant Weimar state theorists, such as Jellinek and Meinecke. Not only was the political independent of the state, Schmitt argued, but it could even be turned against it. Schmitt believed that his contemporaries’ failure to recognize the nature of the political prevented them from adequately responding to the politicization of society, inadvertently risking civil war. This chapter reanalyzes Schmitt’s political from this perspective. Without ignoring enmity, it argues that Schmitt also defines the political in terms of friendship and, importantly, “status par excellence” (the status that relativizes other statuses). It also examines the relationship between the political and Schmitt’s concept of representation.Less
Chapter 2 reinterprets Schmitt’s concept of the political. Schmitt argued that Weimar developments, especially the rise of mass movements politically opposed to the state and constitution, demonstrated that the state did not have any sort of monopoly over the political, contradicting the arguments made by predominant Weimar state theorists, such as Jellinek and Meinecke. Not only was the political independent of the state, Schmitt argued, but it could even be turned against it. Schmitt believed that his contemporaries’ failure to recognize the nature of the political prevented them from adequately responding to the politicization of society, inadvertently risking civil war. This chapter reanalyzes Schmitt’s political from this perspective. Without ignoring enmity, it argues that Schmitt also defines the political in terms of friendship and, importantly, “status par excellence” (the status that relativizes other statuses). It also examines the relationship between the political and Schmitt’s concept of representation.
David Dyzenhaus
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226712291
- eISBN:
- 9780226712468
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226712468.003.0004
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This paper sets out the stages in the American reception of Schmitt that culminated in the present reception, in which some participants take from Schmitt the thought that only an extra-legal ...
More
This paper sets out the stages in the American reception of Schmitt that culminated in the present reception, in which some participants take from Schmitt the thought that only an extra-legal response to emergencies is effective. I argue both that this thought cannot be decoupled from Schmitt’s general anti-liberalism and that an extra-legal response is in fact not on the cards for a liberal state. That argument still has to contend with the possibility that a legal response might be vacuous, thus permitting an illiberal kind of politics to emerge within the constraints of legality. But in revisiting a debate between Schmitt and Kelsen on such matters, I prepare the ground for demonstrating that the legal orders of advanced liberal democracies provide constraints and offer resources that make it possible to respond to emergencies in a manner consistent with the rule of law and thus with liberal principle.Less
This paper sets out the stages in the American reception of Schmitt that culminated in the present reception, in which some participants take from Schmitt the thought that only an extra-legal response to emergencies is effective. I argue both that this thought cannot be decoupled from Schmitt’s general anti-liberalism and that an extra-legal response is in fact not on the cards for a liberal state. That argument still has to contend with the possibility that a legal response might be vacuous, thus permitting an illiberal kind of politics to emerge within the constraints of legality. But in revisiting a debate between Schmitt and Kelsen on such matters, I prepare the ground for demonstrating that the legal orders of advanced liberal democracies provide constraints and offer resources that make it possible to respond to emergencies in a manner consistent with the rule of law and thus with liberal principle.
Hjalmar Falk
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474454971
- eISBN:
- 9781474490733
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474454971.003.0010
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter analyses how Carl Schmitt’s apocalyptic political mythology can provide a critical form for grasping contemporary challenges to the tradition of popular democratic rule. Schmitt’s ...
More
This chapter analyses how Carl Schmitt’s apocalyptic political mythology can provide a critical form for grasping contemporary challenges to the tradition of popular democratic rule. Schmitt’s conception of an ‘illiberal’ democracy is based on seemingly contradictory elements of both ‘populism’ and ‘technocratic elitism’, attempting as it does to wed the popular enthusiasm of mass democracy to a concrete order through the principle of a shared homogeneous identity and the somewhat paradoxical idea of a ‘charismatic bureaucracy’. This amalgamation of authoritarianism and popular sovereignty emanates from what can be described as Schmitt’s ‘katechontic impulse’, a name derived from a Biblical figure introduced by St Paul. The Katechon is the principle or the person that restrains lawlessness or ‘the lawless one’, often interpreted as Antichrist and his reign before the end of days. The chapter shows how Schmitt’s apocalyptic imagery of an ordered popular sovereignty can be illustrated by this politico-theological mytheme and further investigates the implications thereof for contemporary democratic politics.Less
This chapter analyses how Carl Schmitt’s apocalyptic political mythology can provide a critical form for grasping contemporary challenges to the tradition of popular democratic rule. Schmitt’s conception of an ‘illiberal’ democracy is based on seemingly contradictory elements of both ‘populism’ and ‘technocratic elitism’, attempting as it does to wed the popular enthusiasm of mass democracy to a concrete order through the principle of a shared homogeneous identity and the somewhat paradoxical idea of a ‘charismatic bureaucracy’. This amalgamation of authoritarianism and popular sovereignty emanates from what can be described as Schmitt’s ‘katechontic impulse’, a name derived from a Biblical figure introduced by St Paul. The Katechon is the principle or the person that restrains lawlessness or ‘the lawless one’, often interpreted as Antichrist and his reign before the end of days. The chapter shows how Schmitt’s apocalyptic imagery of an ordered popular sovereignty can be illustrated by this politico-theological mytheme and further investigates the implications thereof for contemporary democratic politics.
Arthur Versluis
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195306378
- eISBN:
- 9780199850914
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306378.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter examines German philosopher and political theorist Carl Schmitt's view on the Inquisition and his contribution to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It provides background ...
More
This chapter examines German philosopher and political theorist Carl Schmitt's view on the Inquisition and his contribution to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It provides background information on Schmitt's early career and his thoughts on early modern western esotericism and analyzes some of this most notable works. It suggests that his works offer valuable insights into the nature of modernity, into geopolitics and into politics and throw considerable light on the intellectual origins of modern ideocracies in early and medieval historicist, anti-heresiological Christianity.Less
This chapter examines German philosopher and political theorist Carl Schmitt's view on the Inquisition and his contribution to the emergence of modern totalitarianism. It provides background information on Schmitt's early career and his thoughts on early modern western esotericism and analyzes some of this most notable works. It suggests that his works offer valuable insights into the nature of modernity, into geopolitics and into politics and throw considerable light on the intellectual origins of modern ideocracies in early and medieval historicist, anti-heresiological Christianity.
Victoria Kahn
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226083872
- eISBN:
- 9780226083902
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226083902.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This is a book about the neglected dialogue between several influential twentieth-century theorists of political theology and early modern texts. It focuses on Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, Ernst ...
More
This is a book about the neglected dialogue between several influential twentieth-century theorists of political theology and early modern texts. It focuses on Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, Ernst Kantorowicz, Ernst Cassirer, Walter Benjamin, and Sigmund Freud, and their readings of Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Spinoza. The book argues that the modern critics find in the early modern period a break with an older form of political theology construed as the theological legitimation of the state, a new emphasis on a secular notion of human agency, and, most important, a new preoccupation with the ways art and fiction reoccupy the terrain of religion. In particular, the book argues that poiesis is the missing third term in both early modern and contemporary debates about politics and religion. Poiesis refers to the principle, first advocated by Hobbes and Vico, that we can only know what we make ourselves. This kind of making encompasses both the art of poetry and the secular sphere of human interaction, the human world of politics and history. Attention to poiesis reconfigures the usual terms of the debate and helps us see that the contemporary debate about political theology is a debate about what Hans Blumenberg called “the legitimacy of the modern age.” Against contemporary critics, who are asserting the “permanence of political theology,” the book proposes a critique of political theology and a defense of poetry broadly conceived.Less
This is a book about the neglected dialogue between several influential twentieth-century theorists of political theology and early modern texts. It focuses on Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss, Ernst Kantorowicz, Ernst Cassirer, Walter Benjamin, and Sigmund Freud, and their readings of Shakespeare, Machiavelli, and Spinoza. The book argues that the modern critics find in the early modern period a break with an older form of political theology construed as the theological legitimation of the state, a new emphasis on a secular notion of human agency, and, most important, a new preoccupation with the ways art and fiction reoccupy the terrain of religion. In particular, the book argues that poiesis is the missing third term in both early modern and contemporary debates about politics and religion. Poiesis refers to the principle, first advocated by Hobbes and Vico, that we can only know what we make ourselves. This kind of making encompasses both the art of poetry and the secular sphere of human interaction, the human world of politics and history. Attention to poiesis reconfigures the usual terms of the debate and helps us see that the contemporary debate about political theology is a debate about what Hans Blumenberg called “the legitimacy of the modern age.” Against contemporary critics, who are asserting the “permanence of political theology,” the book proposes a critique of political theology and a defense of poetry broadly conceived.
Benjamin A. Schupmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198791614
- eISBN:
- 9780191833991
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198791614.003.0002
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
Chapter 1 analyzes Schmitt’s assessment of democratic movements in Weimar and the gravity of their effects on the state and constitution. It emphasizes that the focus of Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar ...
More
Chapter 1 analyzes Schmitt’s assessment of democratic movements in Weimar and the gravity of their effects on the state and constitution. It emphasizes that the focus of Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar was mass democracy rather than liberalism. Schmitt warned that the combination of mass democracy, the interpenetration of state and society, and the emergence of total movements opposed to liberal democracy, namely the Nazis and the Communists, were destabilizing the Weimar state and constitution. Weimar, Schmitt argued, had been designed according to nineteenth century principles of legitimacy and understandings of the people. Under the pressure of mass democracy, the state was buckling and cannibalizing itself and its constitution. Despite this, Schmitt argued, Weimar jurists’ theoretical commitments left them largely unable to recognize the scope of what was occurring. Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar democracy was intended to raise awareness of how parliamentary democracy could be turned against the state and constitution.Less
Chapter 1 analyzes Schmitt’s assessment of democratic movements in Weimar and the gravity of their effects on the state and constitution. It emphasizes that the focus of Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar was mass democracy rather than liberalism. Schmitt warned that the combination of mass democracy, the interpenetration of state and society, and the emergence of total movements opposed to liberal democracy, namely the Nazis and the Communists, were destabilizing the Weimar state and constitution. Weimar, Schmitt argued, had been designed according to nineteenth century principles of legitimacy and understandings of the people. Under the pressure of mass democracy, the state was buckling and cannibalizing itself and its constitution. Despite this, Schmitt argued, Weimar jurists’ theoretical commitments left them largely unable to recognize the scope of what was occurring. Schmitt’s criticism of Weimar democracy was intended to raise awareness of how parliamentary democracy could be turned against the state and constitution.
Carlo Galli
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226314976
- eISBN:
- 9780226314990
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226314990.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter presents Carlo Galli's introduction to the Italian edition of Carl Schmitt's Hamlet or Hecuba: The Irruption of Time into the Play. In “Hamlet: Representation and the Concrete,” Galli ...
More
This chapter presents Carlo Galli's introduction to the Italian edition of Carl Schmitt's Hamlet or Hecuba: The Irruption of Time into the Play. In “Hamlet: Representation and the Concrete,” Galli links Schmitt's Hamlet essay to Nomos of the Earth, which Schmitt published in 1950 and which he considered to be his most important work. For Galli, Hamlet or Hecuba is not an incidental piece of amateur literary criticism, but rather the text in which Schmitt most openly confronted the tragic structure of his own thought.Less
This chapter presents Carlo Galli's introduction to the Italian edition of Carl Schmitt's Hamlet or Hecuba: The Irruption of Time into the Play. In “Hamlet: Representation and the Concrete,” Galli links Schmitt's Hamlet essay to Nomos of the Earth, which Schmitt published in 1950 and which he considered to be his most important work. For Galli, Hamlet or Hecuba is not an incidental piece of amateur literary criticism, but rather the text in which Schmitt most openly confronted the tragic structure of his own thought.
David Dyzenhaus
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198298465
- eISBN:
- 9780191685453
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198298465.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
This book investigates one of the oldest questions of legal philosophy —the relationship between law and legitimacy. It analyses the legal theories of three eminent public lawyers of the Weimar era, ...
More
This book investigates one of the oldest questions of legal philosophy —the relationship between law and legitimacy. It analyses the legal theories of three eminent public lawyers of the Weimar era, Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller. Their theories addressed the problems of legal and political order in a crisis-ridden modern society and so they remain highly relevant to contemporary debates about legal order in the age of pluralism. Schmitt, the philosopher of German fascism, has recently received much attention. Kelsen is well-known as one of the main exponents of the philosophy of legal positivism. Heller is virtually unknown outside Germany. The author exposes the dangers of Schmitt's legal philosophy by situating it in the legal context of constitutional crisis to which he responded. He also points out the inadequacies of Kelsen's legal positivism. In a wide-ranging account of the predicaments of contemporary legal and political philosophy, Heller's position is argued to be the most promising of the three.Less
This book investigates one of the oldest questions of legal philosophy —the relationship between law and legitimacy. It analyses the legal theories of three eminent public lawyers of the Weimar era, Carl Schmitt, Hans Kelsen, and Hermann Heller. Their theories addressed the problems of legal and political order in a crisis-ridden modern society and so they remain highly relevant to contemporary debates about legal order in the age of pluralism. Schmitt, the philosopher of German fascism, has recently received much attention. Kelsen is well-known as one of the main exponents of the philosophy of legal positivism. Heller is virtually unknown outside Germany. The author exposes the dangers of Schmitt's legal philosophy by situating it in the legal context of constitutional crisis to which he responded. He also points out the inadequacies of Kelsen's legal positivism. In a wide-ranging account of the predicaments of contemporary legal and political philosophy, Heller's position is argued to be the most promising of the three.
Duncan Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262870
- eISBN:
- 9780191734892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262870.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter binds the book together, recapitulating its general argument, and offering pointers as to how the study relates to some contemporary questions of political theory. It suggests that a ...
More
This chapter binds the book together, recapitulating its general argument, and offering pointers as to how the study relates to some contemporary questions of political theory. It suggests that a classification that distinguishes between Weber the ‘liberal’, Schmitt the ‘conservative’ and Neumann the ‘social democrat’, cannot provide an adequate understanding of this episode in the history of political thought. Nor indeed can it do so for other periods. In this book, one part of the development of their ideas has focused on the relationship between state and politics. By learning from their examples, people continue their own search for an acceptable balance between the freedom of the individual and the claims of the political community.Less
This chapter binds the book together, recapitulating its general argument, and offering pointers as to how the study relates to some contemporary questions of political theory. It suggests that a classification that distinguishes between Weber the ‘liberal’, Schmitt the ‘conservative’ and Neumann the ‘social democrat’, cannot provide an adequate understanding of this episode in the history of political thought. Nor indeed can it do so for other periods. In this book, one part of the development of their ideas has focused on the relationship between state and politics. By learning from their examples, people continue their own search for an acceptable balance between the freedom of the individual and the claims of the political community.
Julia Hell
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226588056
- eISBN:
- 9780226588223
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226588223.003.0025
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
In chapter twenty-four the author explores how Carl Schmitt evolved into the neo-Roman theorist of empire, imperial mimesis, and imperial imaginary. With his katechontic theory of empire and imperial ...
More
In chapter twenty-four the author explores how Carl Schmitt evolved into the neo-Roman theorist of empire, imperial mimesis, and imperial imaginary. With his katechontic theory of empire and imperial mimesis, Schmitt sums up the entire neo-Roman imperial tradition. Polybios developed his ideas about imperial endtimes at the moment when Rome conquered Carthage. Schmitt’s idea of the restrainer who postpones the empire’s end emerged in the early 1940s, when Werner Best, the leading theorist of “great space orders” in the SS, argued that the Nazi empire might be in the process of repeating Rome’s fall. The chapter concludes with Schmitt’s return to his concept of the Pauline katechon in the 1970s.Less
In chapter twenty-four the author explores how Carl Schmitt evolved into the neo-Roman theorist of empire, imperial mimesis, and imperial imaginary. With his katechontic theory of empire and imperial mimesis, Schmitt sums up the entire neo-Roman imperial tradition. Polybios developed his ideas about imperial endtimes at the moment when Rome conquered Carthage. Schmitt’s idea of the restrainer who postpones the empire’s end emerged in the early 1940s, when Werner Best, the leading theorist of “great space orders” in the SS, argued that the Nazi empire might be in the process of repeating Rome’s fall. The chapter concludes with Schmitt’s return to his concept of the Pauline katechon in the 1970s.
