Some Remarks on Carl Schmitt's Notion of "Exception"
In: Filozofski vestnik: FV, Band 16, Heft 2, S. 175-185
ISSN: 0353-4510
Discusses the critical role of exception in Carl Schmitt's concept of sovereignty, presented in Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty (Schwab, Gaby [Tr], 1988). Schmitt states that "sovereign is he who decides on the exception" -- ie, exception is the condition of possibility for sovereign action. Several connotations of this idea are analyzed with respect to the legitimacy of sovereign decision, the construction of political objectivity, the unavoidability of evil as the fundamental premise of the political, rationalism as fear of the exception, Schmitt's critique of liberal rationalism, authority as the personalization of sovereignty, the distinction between state & law, & the modernity of Schmitt's antimodernism. E. Blackwell