Liberalism: a confrontation between Nietzsche and Schmitt

This article aims to analyze and compare the positions of Nietzsche and Schmitt regarding liberalism. Thus, it seeks to clarify and contrast how each author understood this concept, how that understanding relates to their broader assessments and critical views about modernity as well as the alternatives they envisioned. The article focuses on Nietzsche’s mature writings and on Schmitt’s work during the Weimar period. It concludes that, although the authors start from different characterizations of their historical situation, for both, liberalism is part of a broader process, the result of which tends to a political form based on a conception of the individual and of the good life which is harmful to political and cultural life. However, in the final analysis, the authors diverge with respect to Nietzsche’s philosophical path and Schmitt’s theological-political path.

Keywords:
democracy; philosophy; political-theology; nihilism; neutralization