Abstract

The aim of the essay is to explore the notion of duration within Schmitt’s epistemological framework. If at first glance Schmitt sets out to formulate a theoretical framework that has its fulcrum in the constitution of a sociology of juridical concepts (to be understood as ‘Political Theology’) – according to which a sort of mapping of the epochal movement of concepts is reconstructed through which the process of the collective dynamics through which and in which men organise themselves and produce their present is shown (a profoundly rational structure centred around the concept of sovereignty born with the modern state); subsequently, having ascertained the failure of such a project due to its inability to counter liberal theories, Schmitt, thanks above all to his reading of ‘institutionalist’ authors, modifies his framework by centring his theory on the use of the political myth (an operation widely visible in the Nazi years). This essay will move through these phases and attempt to draw conclusions from a possible (non-)use of Schmitt in conceptualising the formation practices of political groups