Ontology of the “Objective Enemy” as Non-being: Hannah Arendt and Carl Schmitt Cover Image

Ontologija »objektivnog neprijatelja« kao nebića: Hannah Arendt i Carl Schmitt
Ontology of the “Objective Enemy” as Non-being: Hannah Arendt and Carl Schmitt

Author(s): Goran Sunajko
Subject(s): Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Phenomenology, Ontology
Published by: Hrvatsko Filozofsko Društvo
Keywords: being; non-being; Edmund Husserl; ontology; fiction; “objective enemy”; public; private; totalitarianism; friend–enemy;

Summary/Abstract: In the paper we analyse the concept of the “objective enemy” at the ontological and political levels. The hypothesis of the paper is that “objective enemy” is not being, rather it is non-being, and therefore one does not exist as an concrete, realistic being. The thesis is set in an ontological framework that being must have unity, immutability and recognizable form that was shown in the ontological premises of Parmenides, Plato, Aristotle and Husserl. At the level of philosophical and political analysis in the theoretical concepts of Carl Schmitt and Hannah Arendt, it is evident that the “objective enemy” does not exist as a concrete being, but only as being invented by the concept that is not adequate to its own subject. This means the untruth in ontological sense. The work draws attention to the danger of the term of “objective enemy” that does not correspond to the real beings, also evident in the Croatian political discourse in the example of the terms: “Fascist”, “Ustaša”, “Četnik”, “Yugo-communist”, and others.

  • Issue Year: 36/2016
  • Issue No: 04/144
  • Page Range: 753-774
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Croatian