Thomas Hobbes and Carl Schmitt : the Politics of Order and Myth.

Thomas Hobbes, the English 17th century philosopher, and Carl Schmitt, Hitlers crown jurist, a political thinker and author of an enigmatic book on Hobbes, are increasingly relevant today for two reasons. First, they address the problem of political order, so important when we witness failed states, the privatisation of war, and the rise of political violence that does not derive from the state. Secondly, they are both crucial sources for the use of mythology in politics; moreover, they address the key issue of our time, namely, the relation between politics and religion. This collection of important new essays addresses Hobbes and Schmitt as political thinkers, their importance for present-day politics and society, their conceptions of myth and politics, and Schmitts use of Hobbes in (and some say against) the Third Reich. When myth, violence and revelation re-emerge as political forces, it is important to understand Hobbess and Schmitts answers to the problems of their time and to those of ours. This book was based on a special issue of the Critical Review of International Socialand Political Philosophy . Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Notes on Contributors 8 Acknowledgements 12 1. Introduction: Thomas Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, and three conceptions of politics 14 2. Schmitt’s Behemoth 28 3. Hobbes and Schmitt on the name and nature of Leviathan revisited 50 4. Re-imagining Leviathan: Schmitt and Oakeshott on Hobbes and the problem of political order 70 5. Hobbes’s paradox redux 90 6. The liberal slip of Thomas Hobbes’s authoritarian pen 110 7. Does Hobbes have a concept of the enemy? 124 8. From Roman Catholicism to mechanized oppression: on political-theological disjunctures in Schmitt’s Weimar thought 144 9. Hobbes, Schmitt, and the paradox of religious liberality 152 10. The significance of Hobbes’s conception of power 170 11. Order, the ocean, and Satan: Schmitt’s Hobbes, National Socialism, and the enigmatic ambiguity of friend and foe 188 Index 206 These important new essays consider both as political thinkers; their importance for present-day politics and society; conceptions of myth and politics; and Schmitt's use of Hobbes in the Third Reich.This book will be published as a special issue of the Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.