The Social Logic of Late Nihilism. Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt on Global Space and the Sites of Gods

This article compares, thematically, two prominent but problematical twentiethcentury critics of nihilism: Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt. Both spoke of the spread of a global space, tied to tendencies towards the reduction of everything to a reserve of resources, a development both connected to a pursuit of intense but ultimately insignificant experiences. For Schmitt, nihilism stems from the disconnection of the global order from its European, Christian origins. For Heidegger, nihilism represents, rather, the culmination of a European, metaphysical tradition. Furthermore, while Schmitt appears to see a counterpoint to nihilism in the sacred sites of Christianity, representing the ultimate metaphysical exception of Christian revelation, Heidegger proposes a view of sacred sites as tied to the appearance of a god as something strange and enigmatic, which has often been reduced within Christian, theological thought. In conclusion, I situate the two critiques in relation to Karl Jasper's notion of an Axial Age and the developments of a contemporary global space. This way of situating the two critiques will show how Heidegger actively attempted to handle two fundamental developments which Schmitt sought to elude: the increasingly intense relativisation of Christianity in relation to other major religious traditions, and the relativisation of claims concerning religious revelations and theophanies in relation to the scientific and technological spatiality and temporality of the global space. © 2014 Academia Europea.