Groundless Existence

Michael Marder is IKERBASQUE Research Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Global Reconstitution (IGRec), Berlin, Germany. His writings span the fields of ecological theory, phenomenology, and political thought. He is the author of numerous scientific articles and monographs, including Plant-Thinking (2013), The Philosopher's Plant (2014), Dust (2016), Energy Dreams (2017), Heidegger (2018), Political Categories (2019), Pyropolitics (2015, 2020), Dump Philosophy (2020); Hegel's Energy (2021), Green Mass (2021), Philosophy for Passengers (2022), The Phoenix Complex (2023), Time Is a Plant (2023), and, with Edward S. Casey, Plants in Place (2024). More information at michaelmarder.org.

"'Not only Schmitt scholars but also all those interested in the meaning of politics after deconstruction will find this book to be an indispensable text. A genuine "must read.' - Gianni Vattimo and Santiago Zabala, authors of Hermeneutic Communism 'Groundless Existence is the new gold standard in Schmitt scholarship and an indispensable point of reference in political philosophy.' - Russell Berman, Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature & Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University"

• List of Abbreviations: The Works of Carl SchmittIntroduction: On the Possibility of a Non-Objectivist Political OntologyPart I - The ElementsChapter 1 - Geometry of the Exception: The Point and The LineTo the PointBeyond the LineThe Extremism of the Middle PointChapter 2 - The Danger: Unavoidability of RiskA Taxonomy of Risk Whence Political Risk? The Anthropological Minus the EconomicRisky RecognitionsRisky DecisionsChapter 3 - The Non-Ground: From the Concept of the Political to the Event of PoliticsA Philosophical Primer: Snapshots of the Event in Heidegger and DerridaThere is no Such a Thing as the "Political Sphere"!Schmitt's Anti-Economism Revisited: Nomos / Appropriation, Politics / ExpropriationHow to Remain Faithful to the Event of Politics?Chapter 4 - Politics in QuestionPrelude: Questioning the QuestionPosing the QuestionInterlude: Yes or No?In Place of a Response...Part II - The CritiqueChapter 5 - Metonymic Abuses of ModernityIn the Name of the Law...Constitutional Unity, Constitutional DetailsThe Fragility of the Status and the Irreducibility of the PoliticalChapter 6 - Political Reduction to Constitutive SubjectivitySchmitt and Husserl: From the CrisisThe Ontology of Political WillP.S.: On Political ConsciousnessPart III - On the GroundChapter 7 - Living Forms: Culture, Multiculturalism and the Complexio Oppositorum Disentangling Complexio OppositorumThe Living Forms of PoliticsA Virtuous Circle: The Mutual Invigoration of Culture and PoliticsMulticulturalism: A New Complexio OppositorumChapter 8 - Political Hermeneutics: The Necessity of InterpretationSchmitt and Gadamer: Decision and InterpretationPolitics as InterpretationInterpreting the Meaning of the Political Political Theology as a Hermeneutic Endeavor