Spring 2022, CairoThematic Course

The Shadow of Carl Schmitt

On Questions of Legality and Legitimacy

Registration closed

Course details

Cycle: Spring 2022, Cairo
Length: 7 sessions
Format: In person
Taught in: This course will be held in English, with flexibility for people who prefer to express themselves in Arabic (by agreement of all participants). All texts will be provided.

Discuss it with AI

Choose your preferred AI assistant.
A new tab will open with a prompt prepared for this page.
Press Send to begin exploring the page through dialogue, CILAS-style.

About the course

This course revolves around one of the most controversial — albeit unavoidable — political thinkers of the twentieth century: Carl Schmitt. To the beginner, the name of Carl Schmitt suggests, after a few readings, a worrisome and outrageous thought, with shock-phrases such as “the sovereign is he who decides on the exception” and “the concept of the state presupposes the concept of the political”. However, a more diffuse concept is systematically found at the root of Carl Schmitt's theoretical wanderings: Legitimacy.

Using the enormous legacy of debates Carl Schmitt has left in his wake, from Hans Kelsen to Giorgio Agamben, students will get a unique opportunity to explore this concept and its extremely tense relationship to that of legality. From the factual limits of the Rule of Law to the most burning issues of International Law, students will develop a greater capacity to appreciate the pitfalls and blindspots of constitutive power, especially considering the current challenge of populism around the world.

Who teaches it

Marouan holds a Master’s degree in Social and Human Sciences from the Paris-Nanterre University, and is specialized in Philosophy of Law. He has presented two dissertations, one set in the context of the Lippmann-Dewey debate and the question of expertise; the other on Carl Schmitt and the concept of legitimacy.
Originally a Computer Science graduate, his passion for philosophy eventually got the best of him. This pushed him to establish the ‘Meeting Point of Civilizations’ NGO, with a focus on promoting philosophy among the general public in Egypt, and the project took a more concrete shape in 2015 with the launching of “Falsafa bel Baladi”, the first platform exclusively dedicated to Public Philosophy in Egypt.
In addition to academic philosophy and offering numerous courses in the field, Marouan is actively involved in “applied philosophy” as a way to self-discovery, through the revival of the Socratic method. This is inspired by the works of Pierre Hadot and draws on the methodology of Oscar Brenifier’s Institute of Philosophical Practices.
Marouan currently teaches philosophy in a private school and has previously worked as an advisor for the GIZ in the field of migration. His upcoming PhD thesis focuses on new geopolitical spaces and the potential future shape of the global legal order.
From the fellow
The method: The interactive and DBL nature of the sessions will rely to a great extent on the “Socratic Exercises” methodology. Using the medium of philosophical texts, dilemmas and questions, it consists in exercising one's mind on an unusual target: oneself and one’s arguments as one delivers them in public. Rooted in questioning and alterity, the aim is to move away from one’s “center” and observe dispassionately one’s ideas and arguments being analyzed by fellow participants. The “other” then becomes a mirror who helps one refine these ideas, letting them gain in clarity and strength. In the process, philosophical and logical skills are improved by learning to: identify and express important questions; present coherent propositions and objections; problematize and pinpoint the crux in a given question; uncover and analyze concepts; distinguish between concepts; determine presuppositions; reformulate propositions, etc.
Tentative flow: Each session revolves around one main Socratic exercise, preceded by an overview from the moderator and followed by a round table on both the exercise and the concepts we went through. The resources for the exercises — including the philosophical skills being worked on — are to a good extent tentative: participants may and are encouraged to suggest alternatives.

Course flow

Showing 7 sessions

Sessions without a date

In class
ActivityOverview from the moderator
ExerciseSocratic exercise (one main exercise per session)
DiscussionRound table on the exercise and the concepts we went through
In class
ActivityOverview from the moderator
ExerciseSocratic exercise (one main exercise per session)
DiscussionRound table on the exercise and the concepts we went through
In class
ActivityOverview from the moderator
ExerciseSocratic exercise (one main exercise per session)
DiscussionRound table on the exercise and the concepts we went through
In class
ActivityOverview from the moderator
ExerciseSocratic exercise (one main exercise per session)
DiscussionRound table on the exercise and the concepts we went through
In class
ActivityOverview from the moderator
ExerciseSocratic exercise (one main exercise per session)
DiscussionRound table on the exercise and the concepts we went through
In class
ActivityOverview from the moderator
ExerciseSocratic exercise (one main exercise per session)
DiscussionRound table on the exercise and the concepts we went through
In class
ActivityOverview from the moderator
ExerciseSocratic exercise (one main exercise per session)
DiscussionRound table on the exercise and the concepts we went through