Description
How can we embrace the philosophical knowledge(s) of the Past in understanding the disciplinary challenges of the Future in International Studies? The paper engages with this question reflecting on the juxtaposition of state and society in past, present, and future political thought, highlighting the interplay between politics and ethics. It seeks to discuss state and society through Hegel’s and Schmitt’s ‘past’ philosophical thought –influential for much of the ‘present’ IR– attempting to understand ‘future’ challenges. The concepts of state and society, the dynamics between them, and the manifestation of ethics and morality through them, are essential for present IR literature as state and society are located in the intersection of the international and the domestic, defining their distinction(s). Hegel has been fundamental in defining and distinguishing state and society in political terms, dialectically discussing the antithetical dynamics of their relationship, and identifying ‘ethical life’ as manifested through both state and society. Schmitt follows Hegel’s dialectic tradition in distinguishing state and society, but ‘ethical life’ for Schmitt is manifested only through the state. However, the state is designated elsewhere by Schmitt as predominant in the political domain, defined respectively by the friend-enemy antithesis; while ethics and morality are manifested through the society, predominant in non-political domains defined by economic, religious, moral, or aesthetic antithetical distinctions. The paper will discuss Hegel in juxtaposition with Schmitt, drawing attention to their respective interpretations of ethics and ‘ethical life’, in an attempt to understand state and society through the interplay of ethics and politics.
