ABSTRACT
The main question I examine is how we can rethink the new beginning in politics apart from the logic of sovereignty and its theological logic. And to sketch a preliminary answer, I propose to reinterpret the role of exception in Carl Schmitt’s political theology in light of Hannah Arendt’s philosophy of transformative political action. Schmitt argues that theology continues its existence in modern secular politics by shaping the conceptual apparatus of sovereignty. Consequently, the juxtaposition of Arendt, Schmitt, and Agamben does not simply oppose secularism to political theology but raises three crucial problems: First, what is the role of analogy and language in the Western concept of sovereignty? Second, what are the different meanings of exception in political life? Is exception always tied to the sovereign decision on the state of exception (Schmitt) and to the violent exclusion of bare life (Agamben)? And finally, can exception be reinterpreted as the unexpected element of political action, as a new beginning? Ultimately I claim that the debate about the role of exception is crucial not only for Arendt’s theory of action but to all non-foundational politics of difference.
