Political Existentialism in Martin Heidegger and Carl Schmitt

The paper examines affinities between Being and Time and The Concept of the Political regarding methodological issues, the reception of themes of the philosophy of existence and the conceptual and political importance of the concept of "community" in both works. It considers the methodological function that the idea of death fulfills in both theories, pointing out that both lead to a practical atheism. The paper seeks to find a common ground for both works that reveals the ethics shared by them. Both Heidegger and Schmitt develop a vision of politics as a community, which is only referred to in the texts through the images of the comradeship of the soldiers and the nationalist fusion of the celebrations by the beginning of the First World War. Seriousness, risk and heroism appear as the most salient collective features of a union that presents itself as "destiny" The study of Heidegger's thinking from the perspective provided by the concepts of Schmitt's text allows us to understand the political aspects of the philosopher's thought before his commitment to National Socialism and allows us to appreciate the strong nationalist imprint underlying some of his ontological formulations.