Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking World: Reorienting the Political

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Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking World: Reorienting the Political examines the reception of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss in China and Taiwan. The legacies of both Schmitt, the German legal theorist and thinker who joined the Nazi party, and Strauss, the German-Jewish classicist and political philosopher who became famous after his emigration to the United States, are highly controversial. Since the 1990s, however, these thinkers have had a powerful resonance for Chinese scholars. Today, when Chinese intellectuals debate the Chinese state, the future role of China in the world, the liberal international order, and even the meaning of Confucian civilization, they often employ Schmittian and Straussian concepts like the political, friendenemy, state of exception, liberal education, and natural right. The very possibility of a genuine Chinese political theory is often thought to be tied to the legacy of these two thinkers. This volume explores this complex phenomenon with a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach. The twelve essays in this volume are written from a range of perspectives by philosophers, political theorists, historians, and legal scholars from China, Germany, Taiwan, and the United States.

Reviews

[The] study has identified a serious problem in contemporary Chinese political thought and brings this deep undercurrent to light in an important volume of work in English. * Journal of Chinese Political Science *
Thisrich volume sparkles with insight as a dozen scholars describe and debate theappropriation of Schmitt andStrauss in the contemporary Sinophone world.Anyone seeking to understand and then engage with Chinesecriticism ofliberalism and skepticism of Western modernity should start here. -- Stephen C. Angle, Professor of Philosophy and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University
CarlSchmitt and Leo Strauss in the Chinese-Speaking Worlddoes much more than contribute to the developing literature on cross-cultural political theory. By approaching Schmitt and Strauss from (a) Chinese perspective(s), the authors give us a much more complex understanding of these scholars. They show that the contemporary Chinese appropriation of Schmitt and Strauss leads not to a misunderstanding of those thinkers but to a creative appropriation of foreign ideas for the sake of a new articulation of Chinese cultural and political identity. Thus this volume not only deepens our understanding of these two important anti-liberal thinkers but gives us a much more complex picture of the meaning of modernity as it has developed over the last 120 years and not only in China. Necessary reading not only for Schmitt and Strauss but for all interested in China and the meanings of modernity. -- Tracy Strong, University of Southampton and UCSD Distinguished Professor, emeritus
Calls to globalize political thought are rife, but few publications offer a concrete or sustained consideration of the specific issues driving truly global thinking about politics. This volume is a notable and brilliant exception. Its nuanced and comprehensive examination of how Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss are being interpreted in the Chinese-speaking world today draws on the expertise of a range of scholars from all over the world to think critically about the meaning and promise of this exchange. This volume promises to define the terms of such research for years to come. -- Leigh Jenco, London School of Economics and Political Science
This volume represents comparative political theory at its very best.It will be essential reading not only for those interested in contemporary Chinese thought but also for scholars and students everywhere grappling with the ideas of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss. -- Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities, Columbia University

Author Bio

Kai Marchal is associate professor in the philosophy department of National Chengchi University. Carl K. Y. Shaw is research fellow at the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, and professor in the Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University.