Civil War and Hobbes: Origin and Foundation of Politics between Schmitt and Agamben

Abstract

The research argues that civil war is an origin phenomenon of modern politics, which cannot be reduced to a chronological event or the linear flow of time. It is a historical force that interrupts and transforms politics, even during moments when order is being established. Hobbes is regarded as a thinker situated at the vortex of this origin. Through a dialogue with Schmitt and Agamben, the research explores the discrepancy between civil war and political order, revealing how the history of the state confronts its truth at the cessation of command. Civil war, as an ontological phenomenon, condenses time into a continuous present, creating a gap that demands rethinking the categories of political order. This duality is unveiled: as a mark of the collapse of order and as its most radical source, always tied to the inherent risk of the political.