Norms without Values. Philosophical Reflections on Carl Schmitt’s Tyranny of Values

Abstract

In his work on The Tyranny of Values (1954) Carl Schmitt argues that the use of values to justify norms necessarily leads to fanaticism and violence, and therefore must be rejected. This paper aims to show Schmitt’s philosophical assumptions that result from the view of man as dangerous and selfish, and of value as dependent from human will and not from some objective knowledge. As Scheler objected to Weber, the rejection of objective values cannot defend man from arbitrariness and irrationality. Schmitt himself tried to justify norms with the sovereign’s decision, but later realized that this way is not sufficient.