ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the implications of Carl Schmitt's Wisdom for the concept of the political, which could, in the sense in which Schmitt views it in Constitutional Theory. In Constitutional Theory, Schmitt contends that liberal constitutionalism represses the political component of the modern constitution, especially the question of sovereignty. Schmitt starts his reflections in Wisdom by asking himself which of the definitions of man in circulation appears self-evident. Schmitt notes that he read Max Stirner in High School and that this prepared him for many recent events, which would otherwise have surprised him. Stirner's The Ego and Its Own was published in 1844 and Schmitt notes that the European thought process from 1830-1848 prepares one also for present world events. Schmitt suggests that the self, and by implication, the concept of the political, is haunted by a force of self-destruction.
