Policy and Subjective Meaning of Action: Max Weber and Carl Schmitt

The paper analyzes the ideas of max Weber and Carl Schmitt, existing at the intersection of political, religious and ethical issues. We begin with the development of the concept of the subjective meaning of action, focusing on its connection with the rational order and such types of social action as the state, the Church, the bureaucracy. It is clear that the rational order has borders, outlined by historical forms of legitimacy of rationality, rooted in religious and ethical arguments. In addition, there is also a threat to the existence of a rational order from the political side. In this sense, one of the visible conditions of the imputation of meaning is governments. Then the analysis of the subjective sense of action passes to the consideration of the grounds of the rational order, as well as the charismatic type of power as its direct competitor. We consider the options of self-assertion of rational domination and focus on dictatorship. The difference between charismatic domination and K. Schmitt's notion of sovereign is significant. Our hypothesis is a deep essential difference between charismatic and sovereign, which takes place in the legal field and in the fields of ethics and religion. To understand how the meaning of action can be transformed at the boundaries of a rational order, we analyze the concept of austerity, as well as consider the different types of ethics and what kind of attitude they imply. We pay special attention to the influence of S. Kierkegaard's ideas on K. Schmitt. Based on this parallel, the author analyzes the ethical and religious parallel between the poet and the sovereign. This duality is the basis of the idea of contrasting "ethics", which are based on Weber and Schmitt, as well as the opposition of the figures of sovereign and charismatic. At the end of the work, we give a sketch of "political existentialism" as a way of building your own sense of action, taking into account political and theological issues.