Carl Schmitt's Critique of Liberalism: Against Politics as Technology (Modern European Philosophy)

This is the first in-depth critical appraisal in English of the political, legal, and cultural writings of Carl Schmitt, perhaps this century's most brilliant critic of liberalism. It offers an assessment of this most sophisticated of fascist theorists without attempting either to apologise for or demonise him. Schmitt's Weimar writings confront the role of technology as it finds expression through the principles and practices of liberalism. Contemporary political conditions such as disaffection with liberalism and the rise of extremist political organizations have rendered Schmitt's work both relevant and insightful. John McCormick examines why technology becomes a rallying cry for both right- and left-wing intellectuals at times when liberalism appears anachronistic, and shows the continuities between Weimar's ideological debates and those of our own age. I. Between Critical Theory And Political Existentialism: Schmitt's Confrontation With Technology -- Antinomies Of Technical Thought: Attempting To Transcend Weber's Categories Of Modernity -- Myth As Antidote To The Age Of Neutralizations: Nietzsche And Cultural Conflict As Response To Technology -- Ii. Liberalism As Technology's Infiltration Of Politics -- Emergency Powers -- Representation -- Law -- The State -- Iii. Liberalism And Fascism/ Technology And Politics -- Epilogue And Summary -- Conclusion. John P. Mccormick. Originally Published: 1997. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.

In this first in-depth critical appraisal in English of the writings of Carl Schmitt, John McCormick has furnished philosophers, historians, and political theorists with the most comprehensive account of Schmitt's critique of liberalism available. He examines why technology becomes a rallying cry for both right- and left-wing intellectuals at times when liberalism appears anachronistic, and shows the continuities between Weimar's ideological debates and those of our own age.

This is the first in-Depth critical appraisal in English of the political, legal, and cultural writings of Carl Schmitt, perhaps this century's most brilliant critic of liberalism. Moreover, it offers an assessment of this most sophisticated of fascist theorists without attempting either to apologize for or demonize him. In his cultural-political treatises from the years 1916 to 1923, Schmitt attempts to formulate a critique of modernity that properly apprehends technology's role within it, without either aesthetically valorizing or fearfully fleeing from it - responses characteristic of many of his contemporaries.