Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking World
Reorienting the Political
Contributions by Harald Bluhm, Jianhong Chen, Thomas Fröhlich, Chuan-wei Hu, Kuan-min Huang, Shu-Perng Hwang, Charlotte Kroll, Han Liu, Kai Marchal, Christopher Nadon, Carl K. Y. Shaw, Mario Wenning Edited by Kai Marchal, Carl K. Y. Shaw
Publication date:
22 February 2017Length of book:
290 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498536264
Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking World: Reorienting the Political examines
the reception of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in China and Taiwan. The legacies of both
Schmitt, the German legal theorist and thinker who joined the Nazi party, and Strauss, the
German-Jewish classicist and political philosopher who became famous after his emigration
to the United States, are highly controversial. Since the 1990s, however, these thinkers have
had a powerful resonance for Chinese scholars. Today, when Chinese intellectuals debate the
Chinese state, the future role of China in the world, the liberal international order, and even
the meaning of Confucian civilization, they often employ Schmittian and Straussian concepts
like “the political,” “friend–enemy,” “state of exception,” “liberal education,” and “natural
right.” The very possibility of a genuine Chinese political theory is often thought to be tied to
the legacy of these two thinkers.
This volume explores this complex phenomenon with a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary
approach. The twelve essays in this volume are written from a range of perspectives by philosophers,
political theorists, historians, and legal scholars from China, Germany, Taiwan,
and the United States.
the reception of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in China and Taiwan. The legacies of both
Schmitt, the German legal theorist and thinker who joined the Nazi party, and Strauss, the
German-Jewish classicist and political philosopher who became famous after his emigration
to the United States, are highly controversial. Since the 1990s, however, these thinkers have
had a powerful resonance for Chinese scholars. Today, when Chinese intellectuals debate the
Chinese state, the future role of China in the world, the liberal international order, and even
the meaning of Confucian civilization, they often employ Schmittian and Straussian concepts
like “the political,” “friend–enemy,” “state of exception,” “liberal education,” and “natural
right.” The very possibility of a genuine Chinese political theory is often thought to be tied to
the legacy of these two thinkers.
This volume explores this complex phenomenon with a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary
approach. The twelve essays in this volume are written from a range of perspectives by philosophers,
political theorists, historians, and legal scholars from China, Germany, Taiwan,
and the United States.
[The] study has identified a serious problem in contemporary Chinese political thought and brings this deep undercurrent to light in an important volume of work in English.