CARL SCHMITT’S LIBERALISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2218-1067-2025-4-136-143Keywords:
Schmitt, Hobbes, state, the political, enemy, man, liberalismAbstract
In this work, I try to trace a clear, albeit preliminary connection between the thought of Carl Schmitt and Thomas Hobbes through the pivotal work of the former called The Concept of the Political. I argue that, despite being one of the most profound critics of liberalism, Schmitt attacks it, staying, as Leo Strauss says, “in the horizon of liberalism”. That is to say, Schmitt, criticizing Hobbes’ heirs, simultaneously attempts to propose a continuation of Hobbes’ political theory; to show the possibility of a different development of Hobbes' thought. The development concentrated around the collective-individual – “a specific entity of a people” united by an individual will – that is, the state, its properties, and its rights and not the human-individual. To flesh out this endeavor, I summarize Schmitt’s theoretical debt to Hobbes by showing that the key concepts of Schmitt’s thought like the political, man, enemy, state, sovereign, and others, are taken or reinterpreted from Hobbes. Thus Schmitt turns out to be in the cohort of Hobbes’ successors, who are usually branded as liberals.References
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