Carl Schmitt
1888-1985 · Fascists & Superfascists · Prominent
Schmitt defined the political as a matter of intensity: any quarrel turns political once it hardens into a grouping of friend and enemy, and only those inside the conflict can judge it. The sovereign is whoever decides when the normal rules stop applying. Modern concepts of the state are theological ones in secular dress. Whoever invokes humanity, he wrote, wants to cheat. He joined the Nazi party in 1933 and defended the Roehm purge killings in print.
Signature
The position Schmitt is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Polity
- leans Illiberalism
- Authority
- Collective Will
Positions on the 7 axes the sources answer
- Society
- leans Collectivism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Collectivism to Individualism)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (75 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Order
- mildly between Vertical and Horizontal (42 on a 0–100 scale from Vertical to Horizontal)
- Nature of Reality
- leans Multiplicity (81 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Nature
- leans Harmony (75 on a 0–100 scale from Mastery to Harmony)
- Polity
- leans Illiberalism (25 on a 0–100 scale from Illiberalism to Liberalism)
- War
- mildly between Pacifism and Militarism (47 on a 0–100 scale from Pacifism to Militarism)
13 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Schmitt refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Government
- Autocracy
What is your ideal form of government? - End of Things
- Apocalyptic Renewal
What is the ultimate end of all things? - Time
- Eschatological
What is the fundamental shape of time? - Authority
- Collective Will
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Law
- Other
What is the ultimate source of legitimate law? - Human Nature
- Other
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Nation
What is your primary bond and loyalty?