Carl Schmitt is the last thinker to provide a complete, original definition of politics. His work influences many debates in contemporary political theory through a collection of concepts he created: political theology, the katechon, friend and enemy. Despite how influential his ideas are, they tend to be employed metaphorically, and sometimes incorrectly. This miscalculation is due to Carl Schmitt himself, who never gave us a final, complete version of his political thought, or even of some of his most famous concepts. In this book, I aim to reconstruct his political thought using three key concepts: political theology, the concept of the political, and the theory of modernity. To do so, I have consulted all his published works, but also the archival documents, in particular those with ties to Spain, which had previously received little attention. This reconstruction offers readers a qualitative introduction to Schmitt's political thought that aims to blend logical clarity with document-based evidence. Contents Acknowledgements XI Introduction 1 1 Political Theology and the Formality of Zentralgebiet 9 The Success of Political Theology 9 Types of Secularization 17 The Three Meanings of Political Theology 21 Political Theology. The Identity between Religion and Politics 22 The Common Structure between Theology and Politics 26 Political Theology as a Theory of Secularization 32 Terminological Examination. The Path to Zentralgebiet 35 The Meaning of Political Theology 37 Political Theology and Determinism 43 How Political Theology Determines 44 The Political Theology and the Political Regime 47 The Intellectual as the Predictor of the next Zentralgebiet 50 Two Concepts of Theology 52 The Limits and Discoveries of Modernity as Political Theology 65 2 The Political as Imperfect Recognition 79 The Destruction of The Concept of the Political 79 The Precedence of Friendship 83 The ?ought to be? of Imperfect Recognition 89 The Theological Justification of Imperfect Recognition 92 Original Sin: Alpha and Omega of Political History 95 The Katechon: Original Sin in the End of History 104 Is a Doctrine of Original Sin Required to Accept Imperfect Recognition? 108 Death as a Condition of Political Grouping 111 The Emptiness of the Political 116 The Objective Emptiness: the Political without Content 116 Subjective Emptiness: the Political with no Institution 129 Look for Coherence between Political Theology, The Concept of the Political and The Nomos 134 The Double Limitation of Conflictuality: Internal Perfection to External Lack of Control 141 Achievable Peace 146 Moderate Persecution of the Enemy 149 Was the Jew the Internal Enemy of Nazi Germany? 154 Sovereignty. The Vacuity of Logical Contradiction and the Gravity of Practical Contradiction 157 3 Modernity and Postmodernity: Chronology as Philosophy of History 171 The Automatism of National Order and the Creativity of International Order 171 Modernity: the Perfection of Imperfect Order 174 Modern Order as a Refuge for the Political 176 From Critique to Demand for State Neutralization 181 Asymmetric Globalization 186 Possible Utopia: Limitation of War 191 Just War and the Impossibility of Eliminating War 196 The Long 19th Century: 1848-1979 207 Conservative Marginalization and Liberal Depreciation 208 1848 as a Measure of History 215 The Victory of 1848 over 1789 216 1848: The Total Revolution 219 The Great Revolution, but what Revolution? 221 Total Revolution and Total Authority 226 The End of the 19th Century, the End of History 230 The Geschichtsbild as Vindication of an Accidental Philosophy of History 237 References 257 Index of names 269
-5%
-5%
