The Concept of the Political by C. Schmitt

Only be defining political categories can be obtain a true definition f the political, it must rest on its own ultimate distinctions. A political meaning can be traced to all actions of these distinctions. The specific distinction is that of the friend and the enemy, political actions can be reduced to this distinction. They are not like other opposites but rather the antithesis of friend and enemy corresponds to the relatively independent criteria of other antitheses like beautiful and ugly. However, neither can be based on any one antithesis and can not be traced back to other antitheses. This distinction denotes the ultimate degree of intensity. It is sufficient for man that existentially something different and alien exists which makes conflict possible. This is the concept of the other. Man treats an enemy as being evil and ugly because even the most intense distinctions tend to rely on other distinctions for support. The nature of the political is evident when it is able to treat, distinguish and comprehend the friend-enemy antithesis independently of other antitheses.

One of the typical dilemmas of intellect and economics is Liberalism, it attempts to transform the enemy from an economic viewpoint into a competitor and a debating adversary from an intellectual viewpoint. However, we see that nations in the world tend to group themselves according to this friend-enemy antithesis, this distinction is an ever present possibility. The enemy is not the private adversary that one hates, the enemy is solely the public enemy because of such a collectivity of men it becomes public. Only in the private sphere does it make sense to love one’s enemy. The political is the most intense hatred and as any hatred comes close to the most extreme point it becomes more political, the point of the friend-enemy grouping. It is relevant for the concept of the political that the antithesis and the antagonism remain within the state’s domain. In everyday language the fact that the substance of the political is concrete antagonism is expressed, it is exemplified by language. Firstly thought all political concepts, images and terms having a polemical meaning, this determines the use of the word political. Secondly in usual domestic polemics the word political is today often used interchangeably with party politics. This is possible when domestic politics succeed in weakening the all embracing political unit. Internal antagonisms have the power to destroy the identity vis-à-vis another state. There is also a ever possible threat of conflict which should not be forgotten. Speaking of internal politics in their context of primacy this refers to civil war. The weapon has the power to physically kill people. The word combat also needs to be understood in its original existential meaning, it is a fact that the entire life of a human being is a struggle and every human being symbolically a combatant. All these concepts get their meaning because they talk about the possibility of real killing. War follows from enmity, it is the existential negation of the enemy. However, the definition of the political does not favour militarism, imperialism or pacifism. As the famous term by Clausewtiz says the military battle itself is not the continuation of politics by other means. War is open and it is not a political problem, soldiers face each other openly. War is only a possibility, it is not the aim or purpose of politics.