Carl Schmitt was born on July 11, 1888 in Plettenberg, Westphalia, Germany — where he died on April 7, 1985, at the age of 96. The son of a Roman Catholic small businessman, Carl Schmitt studied law in Berlin, Munich, and Strasbourg, graduating and taking his state exams in Strasbourg in 1915. In 1916, he earned his habilitation in Strasbourg, qualifying him to be a law professor. He taught at business schools and universities in Munich, Greifswald, Bonn, Berlin, and Cologne.
Tag: political philosophy
-
4,276 words
Part 1 of 2
The concept of philosophical dialectic is quite mysterious and intimidating. Even among professional philosophers, dialectic often has connotations of mysticism, obscurantism, and slight of hand. I wish to dispel this aura. I will lay out the elements of philosophical dialectic by looking at specific arguments in Plato’s Republic[1] and Hegel’s Philosophy of Right[2] and then employ Heidegger’s account of the hermeneutic circle Being and Time and Husserl’s account of the logic of parts and wholes in his Logical Investigations to clarify the dialectical process. (more…)
-
December 17, 2016 Guillaume Durocher
Просвещенный абсолютизм:
Принципы законотворчества Фридриха ВеликогоEnglish original here
Возможно, самая впечатляющая западная традиция государственного строительства, по крайней мере в Новое время, принадлежит Пруссии. Разумеется, либерально-демократическая традиция, начатая Соединенными Штатами и Францией крепка, и она недаром сегодня господствует в нашем мире. (more…)
-
5,086 words
Frederick the Great
Exposé du gouvernement prussien, des principes sur lesquels il roule, avec quelques réflexions politiques
Berlin, 1775-1776[1]One often encounters people who have no faith in the ability of a small nation to achieve anything worthwhile.[2] Yet one typically does not have the luxury of choice. One may prefer to live in a large and populous country, but in any event one must work with what one has. (more…)
-
1,683 words
Translated by Guillaume Durocher
Translator’s Note:
This text was addressed to Duke Charles-Eugene of Württemberg on February 6, 1744, on the occasion of his turning 16 and the end of his regency as a minor, to advise him on how to be a good monarch. Charles-Eugene was Frederick the Great’s nephew-in-law and had been raised in part at his court in Prussia. (more…)
-
Part 2 of 2; Russian translation here
Moderation & Humaneness
The sovereign has authority but, as with the father, this must be deserved. Frederick notes dispassionately that Publicola, one of the founders of the Roman Republic, had legalized tyrannicide. The laws must be fair and appropriate to the nation concerned, (more…)
-
November 9, 2016 Guillaume Durocher
Enlightened Patriarchy:
Frederick the Great’s Principles of Lawmaking2,887 words
Russian translation here
Perhaps the most impressive Western tradition of statecraft, at least in the modern era, is that of Prussia. To be sure, the liberal-democratic tradition launched by the United States and France is formidable, and it is not without reason that it today dominates our world. But the greatness of America and France also relied upon a prosaic factor: sheer demographic and geographic size. (more…)
-
3,509 words
Before World War II liberal rights were understood among Western states in a libertarian and ethno-nationalistic way. Freedom of association, for example, was understood to include the right to refuse to associate with certain members of certain ethnic groups, even the right to discriminate in employment practices. This racial liberalism was still institutionalized right up until the 1960s. The settler nations of Australia, Canada, United States, and New Zealand enjoyed admission and naturalization policies based on race and culture, intended to keep these nations “White.”
-
252 words
Aleister Crowley was an English poet, novelist, painter, and mountaineer who is most famous as an occultist, ceremonial magician, and founder of the religion and philosophy of Thelema. But ironically Crowley’s supposed Satanism and Black Magic are far less frightening to most people than his politics. For Aleister Crowley was also a man of the Right.
-
Francis Parker Yockey was born on this day in 1917 in Chicago. He died in San Francisco on June 16, 1960, an apparent suicide. Yockey is one of America’s greatest anti-liberal thinkers and an abiding influence on the North American New Right. In honor of his birthday, I wish to draw the reader’s attention to the following works on this site.