Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought) - Softcover
"Sovereign is he who decides on the exception." So begins Political Theology, the book that, marked Carl Schmitt as one of the most significant political and legal theoreticians of the 20th century.
Writing amid the intense political and intellectual ferment of the early Weimar Republic, Schmitt argued that the essence of sovereignty ties in the absolute authority to decide when the normal conditions presupposed by the legal authority exist. Because the norms of a legal system cannot govern a state of emergency, they cannot determine when such an exceptional state holds, or what should be done to resolve it. Thus every legal order ultimately rests not upon norms, but rather on the decisions of the sovereign.
Schmitt underpins this analysis of sovereignty with a "political theology" that claims that all the important concepts of modern political thought are secularized theological concepts; he concludes with an attack on liberalism and its attempt to depoliticize political thought, by avoiding fundamental moral and political decisions.
Political Theology is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.
Writing amid the intense political and intellectual ferment of the early Weimar Republic, Schmitt argued that the essence of sovereignty ties in the absolute authority to decide when the normal conditions presupposed by the legal authority exist. Because the norms of a legal system cannot govern a state of emergency, they cannot determine when such an exceptional state holds, or what should be done to resolve it. Thus every legal order ultimately rests not upon norms, but rather on the decisions of the sovereign.
Schmitt underpins this analysis of sovereignty with a "political theology" that claims that all the important concepts of modern political thought are secularized theological concepts; he concludes with an attack on liberalism and its attempt to depoliticize political thought, by avoiding fundamental moral and political decisions.
Political Theology is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author:
Tracy B. Strong is distinguished professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is a former editor of Political Theory and the author or editor of many books, including Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transfiguration, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Politics of the Ordinary, and The Many and the One: Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World.
Language Notes:
Text: English, German (translation)
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherMit Pr
- Publication date1988
- ISBN 10 0262691248
- ISBN 13 9780262691246
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages70
- Rating
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Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)
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(1988)
ISBN 10: 0262691248
ISBN 13: 9780262691246
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Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty
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(1988)
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ISBN 13: 9780262691246
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Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought)
Published by
MIT Press
(1988)
ISBN 10: 0262691248
ISBN 13: 9780262691246
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