The Language of Postwar Intellectual Schmittianism

Bibliographic Data

ID3970202
AuthorsTimo Pankakoski (0000-0002-4076-9717, University of Helsinki, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume23
Issue6
Pages607-627
Publication date2018-08-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe European Legacy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1084-8770 • E-ISSN: 1470-1316
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10848770.2018.1471917
OpenAlexW2804631311
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited26

The article analyzes the work of Hanno Kesting, Reinhart Koselleck, Roman Schnur, and Nicolaus Sombartfour young followers of Carl Schmitt in postwar Germany. Their intellectual Schmittianism was less than a full commitment to Schmitt's political positions, yet had more than an arbitrary similarity with them: it pertained to assumptions, categories, and modes of thought. Drawing on Pocock's terminology, I identify a particular language of intellectual Schmittianism, introduce its key components, and analyze their interaction. I focus on six categories derived from Schmitt's narrative of European political modernity: discrimination, historical parallels, secularization, global civil war, open/latent civil war, and category blurs. The analysis shows that these categories were interlinked argumentative devices rather than mere rhetoric and that they systematically upheld the postwar scholars' arguments. While the Schmittian language enabled the young scholars to express their political skepticism without necessarily rejecting the newly adopted institutional forms, it also constrained their choices. Linguistic resources can always be used for novel purposes, yet the dense internal structure of the language of postwar intellectual Schmittianism hindered revaluation and selective utilization. Kesting excluded, the young scholars gradually grew critical of Schmitt to varying degrees, but they never directly confronted his problematic language

Argumentative · Conceptual history · Epistemology · Linguistics · Modernity · Narrative · Parallels · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Skepticism · Sociology · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy

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