131214840-Carl-Schmitt

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energy that the very idea of mediating discussion appeared to be only an interim between
bloody battles. Both opponents answered with a destruction of balance, with an immediacy
and absolute certainty—with dictatorship. There is, to use crude catchwords for a provisional
characterization, a dogma of rationalism and another of irrationalism. For the dictatorship
born of an unmediated rationalism that is absolutely certain in its own terms, a long tradition
already lay at hand: the Enlightenment's educational dictatorship, philosophical Jacobinism,
the tyranny of reason, a formal unity springing from the rationalist and classical spirit, the
"alliance of philosophy and the sword." 2 With Napoleon's defeat this tradition appeared to be
finished, overcome theoretically and morally by a newly awakening historical sense. But the
possibility of a rationalist dictatorship always remained in a historical-philosophical form and
lived on as a political idea. Its upholder was radical Marxist socialism, whose ultimate
metaphysical proof was built on the basis of Hegel's historical logic.
Just because socialism moved from utopia to science does not mean that it renounced
dictatorship. It is a remarkable symptom that a few radical socialists and anarchists have
believed since the World War that they must go back to a utopia so that socialism can regain
its courage for dictatorship. 3 This demonstrates how profoundly science has ceased to be the
obvious foundation of social practice for the current generation. But it does not prove that the
possibility of a dictatorship is no longer open to scientific socialism. The word scientific must
only be correctly understood, and not limited to merely precise natural-scientific technology.
The philosophy of the natural sciences cannot, of course, provide a foundation for
dictatorship just as it could not for any other political institution or authority. The rationalism
of scientific socialism goes much further than the natural sciences could possibly do. In it the
rationalist faith of the Enlightenment has been vastly outdone and taken a new, almost
fantastic jump. Had it been able to retain its old energy, then it would certainly have been
comparable in intensity with the rationalism of the Enlightenment.
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