Carl Schmitt Between Technological Rationality and Theology : The Position and Meaning of His Legal Thought

Situates Schmitt's legal scholarship in the context of debates regarding whether his thought was more theological or technocratic. Carl Schmitt, one of the most influential legal and political thinkers of the twentieth century, is known chiefly for his work on international law, sovereignty, and his doctrine of political exception. This book argues that greater prominence should be given to his early work in legal studies. Schmitt himself repeatedly identified as a jurist, and Hugo E. Herrera demonstrates how for Schmitt, law plays a key role as an intermediary between ideal, conceptual theory and the complexity of practical, concrete situations. Law is concerned precisely with balancing the extremes of theory and reality, and in this respect, Schmitt associates it with philosophical thinking broadly as being able to understand and explain the tensions in human experience. Reviewing and analyzing prevailing interpretations of Schmitt by Jacques Derrida, Heinrich Meier, and others, Herrera argues that the importance of Schmitt's legal framework is both significant and overlooked. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Foreword 12 Introduction 14 Schmitt’s Self-Understanding 14 Two Contemporary Interpretations 15 An Argumentative Roadmap 18 The Juridical and the Political 19 Chapter 1 Law and Technology 22 Jacques Derrida’s Interpretation 22 Two Kinds of Understanding 29 Closedness versus Openness to the Exceptional 31 Excluding versus Attending the Manner in Which Existence is Revealed 35 Closedness versus Openness to the Other, and Technological Control 37 Understanding 40 Jacques Derrida and Schmitt’s Juridical Thought 42 The Exception 43 The Subject 45 Understanding 48 The Juridical Nature of Existence 49 Juridico-Political Exception 52 Friend and Enemy 54 Chapter 2 Law and Theology 58 Heinrich Meier’s Interpretation 58 Differences between Law and Theology 63 Substantialism and Juridical Epistemological Control 64 Surrendering to Meaning Without, or Without Sufficient, Epistemological Control 66 Institutionalization and Recognition of the Other 67 Broader Scope of Understanding 69 Heinrich Meier on Schmitt’s Thought 73 Omissions 73 The Applicability of Meier’s Criteria and Clarifications to Schmitt 76 The Three Marks 76 Three Additional Clarifications 82 Chapter 3 Juridical Thought 86 Juridical Thought as Philosophy of Concrete Life 89 Systematic Exposition of the Fundamental Aspects of Juridical Understanding as the Manner of Understanding of the Philosophy of Concrete Life 96 The Poles of Understanding 96 The Hermeneutical Dialectic 99 The Law as Fundamental Form of Understanding 106 The Manner of Juridical Understanding in Schmitt’s Texts 110 Notes 122 Works Cited 186 Index 202 "Carl Schmitt, one of the most influential legal and political thinkers of the twentieth century, is known chiefly for his work on international law, sovereignty, and his doctrine of political exception. This book argues that greater prominence should be given to his early work in legal studies. Schmitt himself repeatedly identified as a jurist, and Hugo E. Herrera demonstrates how for Schmitt, law plays a key role as an intermediary between ideal, conceptual theory and the messiness and complexity of practical, concrete situations. Law is concerned precisely with balancing the extremes of theory and reality, and in this respect, Schmitt associates it with philosophical thinking broadly as being able to understand and explain the tensions in human experience. Reviewing and analyzing prevailing interpretations of Schmitt by Jacques Derrida, Heinrich Meier, and others, Herrera argues that the importance of Schmitt's legal framework is both significant and overlooked"-- Provided by publisher