The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes (Carl Schmitt)

Of the life and death of the Leviathan state of Thomas Hobbes, and much else besides, as always with Carl Schmitt, including how the end of that state led to the administrative/managerial state and the triumph of destructive, soulless technique.

The written version of this review can be found here: https://theworthyhouse.com/2025/01/29/the-leviathan-in-the-state-theory-of-thomas-hobbes-meaning-and-failure-of-a-political-symbol-carl-schmitt/

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"In this challenging book, Carl Schmitt analyzes the modern state through the life and death of the Leviathan state of Thomas Hobbes. Leviathan, the “mortal god,” dominated the early modern era, but contained within itself the seeds of its own destruction, the shattering of the unified all-powerful state into the dual spheres of private and public posited by liberalism. This work is not primarily a critique of liberalism, however; Schmitt covers that in many of his other works. Rather, it is a criticism that in the modern state, the degenerate successor of Leviathan, men are drawn to deny the primacy of the political. Instead, they exalt government as administrative machine, deliverer of soulless technique. And this is destructive, because the state becomes alienated from the life of a nation, which undermines the unity of a people. . . ."