Abstract

Schmitt’s flagship project of political theology has recently become the subject of widespread discussion in political philosophy. One of the trends that has emerged in the interpretations of this project is associated with criticism of Carl Schmitt’s political-theological approach itself. An increasing number of authors see political theology as a serious challenge for modernity, considering it a tool for justifying and legitimizing state violence. Therefore, there is a need to overcome political-theological logic and turn to other strategies for thinking about the political. At the same time, the question of resources that could act as an alternative to Schmitt’s project is becoming more relevant. The article proves that anarchist theory can become such a resource. The author, however, does not mean its classical version, reflected in the works of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Mikhail Bakunin. Having reconstructed Schmitt’s vision of anarchism, he shows that, although the German philosopher’s interpretation of anarchist theory was not completely correct, Schmitt was not entirely wrong when he called the classical anarchists of the 19th century anti-theological theologians and anti-dictatorship dictators, qualifying them as inverted counterparts to the theorists of state absolutism. However, anarchist thought is not confined to the attitudes of the followers of Bakunin and Proudhon. Thus, the author turns to the concept of Gustav Landauer, the German anarchist of the early 20th century, demonstrating that it is free from the inherent flaws of classical anarchism and presupposes a model of political thinking that is fundamentally different from Schmitt’s model, being located outside the political-theological frame. According to his conclusion, being free from political and theological assumptions, this model allows one to talk about politics and the social outside of the usual terms, such as state, power, domination, and subordination, moving rather towards the idea of autonomous communities, excluded from the current state order and at the same time coexisting with such order.

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