Carl Schmitt's Decisionism

As a key concept in Schmitt's law and political philosophy,Decisionism has different meanings in different periods of Schmitt's life.Combining Schmitt's ups and downs of life experience,this dissertation first examines the relationship between his thought of decision and his life choice.The Weimar Republic,which practiced parliamentary democracy,was always in a state of turbulence from the very beginning of its birth.Carl Schmitt had always been a serious critic of the Nazi and other extremist forces that threatened the democratic regime,but after Ermachtigungsgesetz was passed in Reichstag,Schmitt made a surprising decision-to join the German National Socialist Party.From his own writings and diaries,we can find that Schmitt's thinking before and after joining the Nazi undergone a major change,this change is not simply political speculation,but rather closely related with his concerns on political order.Even After the WW ? when Schmitt was marginalized by the German society,because of his association with the Nazis,Schmitt has never expressed regret or repentance.In this life decision,we see his behavior and his thought of decision is quite fit,that is to make a decision in the complex situation,and be courageous to bear the consequent of decision.The second part of this paper combs Schmitt's discourse from four aspects:the decision of legal practice,the decisionism as a legal thinking,the decision of sovereignty and the decision of the political.These four aspects also reflect the development of Schmitt's thought of decision:from a understanding of the decision in legal practice mainly from the role of judge's personal decision,advanced into the exploration of jurisprudential thinking-decision is an independent source of law;further,Schmitt considered that the first decision is the sovereign's decision on the state of exception.The third part attempts to break down the concept of decision into several important elements:from the "decision is the termination of the discussion","decision is out of nothing","decision means everything" to review and reflect on Schmitt's magic discourse.I argues that Schmitt's argument is often controversial and his statement itself is "making a decision",thus therefore he tends to push the idea to the extreme.But in fact,his thinking is quite comprehensive and complicated.The last part intends to indicate the influence of Christianity and the Roman Empire in Schmitt's thought,which provides a useful reference for the real decisions.