In ‘The Concept of the Political’, Schmitt presents the friend-enemy distinction, arguably his most well known political concept. This seminar seeks to unpack Schmitt’s full defence of his agonistic account of politics as an existential fact of life. We will also connect the friend-enemy distinction to Schmitt’s concept of sovereignty discussed last week. After unpacking Schmitt’s argument, we will shift focus to Schmitt’s somewhat unexpected quasi-Marxian condemnation of economic warfare and his critique of liberalism as an ideology which seeks to dispense with politics.
