Le GRÉEA est heureux d’accueillir Mike O’Brien, qui nous offrira une présentation intitulée « Carl Schmitt and possible applications of his work to inter-species politics ».

Description:

This presentation will discuss the work of German legal-political thinker Carl Schmitt and highlight some of his concepts that may be useful for thinking about inter-species political relations. It will address both his pre-WW2 work on political theology, sovereignty and politics as a concept defined by enmity, as well as his post-WW2 work on political partisanship and territorial order. The main themes will be:

(1) the role of enmity (in Schmitt’s particular sense) in shaping a political relation between human and non-human populations,
(2) the occupation and use of territory as a determinant of political orientation,
(3) The possibility of cis-species-alienation in the formation of inter-species political orientation.

The major works discussed will be:

The Concept of the Political (1932),
Political Theology (1934),
The Nomos of the Earth (1950),
The Theory of the Partisan (1963).

Familiarity with the Planet of the Apes film franchise may also be helpful.