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The Power of Carl Schmitt: Fascism, Dualism and Justice
Version 1
: Received: 29 November 2018 / Approved: 30 November 2018 / Online: 30 November 2018 (15:49:55 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Cohen, R.A. The Power of Carl Schmitt: Fascism, Dualism and Justice. Religions 2019, 10, 7. Cohen, R.A. The Power of Carl Schmitt: Fascism, Dualism and Justice. Religions 2019, 10, 7.
Abstract
To show that underlying Schmitt's account of fascist politics lies a Gnostic-like metaphysical dualism separating the realms of value and power. Contrary to the normative political tradition of the West, which defends an ethical politics, Schmitt - jurist and theorist of the Nazis - aligns himself with Machiavelli and Hobbes to defend realpolitik: where sovereignty is ultimately a function of the Dictator's will alone. This paper shows the contradiction within such a position, which criticizes values in politics but by its advocacy, and its defense of the Dictator's willing, relies on valuation, choice, and hence the ethical.
Keywords
justice, fascism, Nazi, Gnosticism, power, ethics, will
Subject
Arts and Humanities, Philosophy
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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