Schmitt and Mouffe on the ‘Ontology’ of the Political
Babrak Ibrahimy
Schmitt and Mouffe on the ‘ontology’ of the politicalThis paper addresses the issue of ‘ontology’ in Schmitt and Mouffe. Two related questions are important in this regard. First, it is of interest to see whether Schmitt considered the political in its ontological form, specifically in his The Concept of the Political. By ontologi- cal I mean that the political has had a particular form throughout history, without room for other manifestations than the known friend/enemy distinction. Second, I will propose that the ‘ethical dimension’ present in the treatise informs the relation and the tension of the political in its ontological form. By focusing on passages on neutrality and pacifism in
Schmitt’s treatise, my claim is that the content of the political as friend/enemy distinction cannot solely be articulated in antagonistic form, which is Mouffe’s position.
