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“Laws, Exceptions, Norms: Kierkegaard, Schmitt, and Benjamin on the Exception,” Telos: A Quarterly Journal of Politics, Philosophy, Critical Theory, Culture, and the Arts 162 (2013): 77–96.
- Author(s):
- Rebecca Ruth Gould (see profile)
- Date:
- 2018
- Group(s):
- Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Political Philosophy & Theory
- Subject(s):
- Frankfurt school of sociology, Political science--Philosophy, Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813-1855, Normativity (Ethics), Philosophy
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- carl schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Frankfurt school, Political philosophy, Kierkegaard, Normativity, Theory
- Permanent URL:
- http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6ZW18R7Q
- Abstract:
- The concept of the exception has heavily shaped modern political theory. In modernity, Kierkegaard was one of the first philosophers to propound the exception as a facilitator of metaphysical transcendence. Merging Kierkegaard’s metaphysical exception with early modern political theorist Jean Bodin’s theory of sovereignty, Carl Schmitt introduced sovereignty to metaphysics. He thereby made an early modern concept usable in a post-metaphysical world. This essay carries Schmitt’s appropriation one step further. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s replacement of transcendental metaphysics with contingent creaturehood, it reintroduces the anti-foundationalist concept of repetition that was implicit in Kierkegaard’s paradigm but which was not made lucid until Benjamin crafted from the Schmittian exception a vision of political life grounded in creaturely existence.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 6 years ago
- License:
- All Rights Reserved
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