Carl Schmitt between Technological Rationality and Theology

The Position and Meaning of His Legal Thought

By Hugo E. Herrera

Subjects: Philosophy, Philosophy Of Law, Political Theory, Theology
Paperback : 9781438478784, 222 pages, January 2021
Hardcover : 9781438478777, 222 pages, June 2020

Alternative formats available from:

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

1. Law and Technology

2. Law and Theology

3. Juridical Thought

Notes
Works Cited
Index

Situates Schmitt's legal scholarship in the context of debates regarding whether his thought was more theological or technocratic.

Description

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.

Hugo E. Herrera is Professor of Philosophy at the Diego Portales University in Santiago, Chile.

Reviews

"The book is required reading for Schmitt scholars, because Herrera includes a brief analysis of all of the theorist's major works through this legal lens. " — CHOICE