Antropologia dello stato d’eccezione Carl Schmitt, Arnold Gehlen, Helmuth Plessner

The essay starts from the assumption that there is no political philosophy that does not presuppose an anthropology or an image of man. At the same time, there does not exist an anthropology and image of man that has no political implications. The increasingly evident affirmation of the «state of exception as a rule» – theori- zed by Schmitt, Benjamin and taken up by Agamben – necessary to face constant and repeated states of emergency, poses the problem of understanding what kind of anthropology (what kind of man) is that connected with this contemporary policy. The essay identifies Plessner’s and, above all, Gehlen’s anthropologies’ turning point as a counterpart to the state of exception, with the emotional aggravation and overload of decisionality that the crisis of the institutions entails.