Carl Schmitt

Carl Schmitt (July 11, 1888 – April 7, 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and professor of law. Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power. His ideas have attracted the attention of numerous philosophers and political theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Leo Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Etienne Balibar, Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Ag... more

Carl Schmitt (July 11, 1888 – April 7, 1985) was a German jurist, political theorist, and professor of law. Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power. His ideas have attracted the attention of numerous philosophers and political theorists, including Walter Benjamin, Leo Strauss, Jacques Derrida, Etienne Balibar, Hannah Arendt, Giorgio Agamben, Carlo Galli, Antonio Negri, Paolo Virno, Slavoj Žižek, Alain Badiou, Jacob Taubes, Alvaro d'Ors, Chantal Mouffe and Paul Gottfried. Much of his work remains controversial today, in part due to his involvement with Nazism. "Carl Schmitt's polemical discussion of political Romanticism conceals the aestheticizing oscillations of his own political thought. In this respect, too, a kinship of spirit with the fascist intelligentsia reveals itself." Schmitt was born the son of a small Roman Catholic businessman in Plettenberg, Westphalia on... less