Hugo E. Herrera

Hugo E. Herrera (born 5 February 1974) is a Chilean legal philosopher and academic. He is a professor of philosophy at the Faculty of Law of Diego Portales University in Santiago, Chile. His academic work focuses on modern philosophy, particularly Immanuel Kant, post-Kantian philosophy, and early German Idealism. He has also written essays on Chilean political thought and intellectual history.

Early life and education Herrera studied law at the University of Valparaíso, completing a thesis under the supervision of Aldo Valle and Joaquín García-Huidobro Correa. In 2004 he received a doctorate (Dr. phil.) in philosophy from the University of Würzburg.

Scholarship

Kant, post-Kantian philosophy, and German Idealism Herrera has written on Kant's practical philosophy, particularly the relation between freedom and the consciousness of moral law. A substantial part of his research concerns Salomon Maimon and Maimon's engagement with Kant, including studies on intellectual intuition and the problem of the given.

Herrera has also published on Friedrich Hölderlin and early German Romanticism, addressing themes such as the unity of experience and the concept of ground (Urgrund).

Political Philosophy

In his book Carl Schmitt between Technological Rationality and Theology (2020), Herrera develops a philosophical interpretation of Carl Schmitt’s thought centered on the concept of juridical understanding.

Within this framework, Herrera engages critically with influential contemporary interpretations of Schmitt’s work, including those proposed by Jacques Derrida and Heinrich Meier. Regarding Meier’s interpretation of Schmitt as primarily a political theologian, Herrera argues that such a characterization relies on a limited textual basis and does not sufficiently account for the broader philosophical structure of Schmitt’s work.

According to Herrera, Schmitt’s conception of juridical reasoning seeks to mediate between rule and case in a manner distinct from both technical manipulation and purely decisionistic approaches.

Some of his work on Kant and Maimon has been cited in subsequent academic research on post-Kantian philosophy. Herrera’s work has received also attention in Chilean political and legal philosophy. The philosopher and legal theorist Renato Cristi (Wilfrid Laurier University) described him as “the most serious, learned, and intellectually accomplished right-of-centre intellectual at present,” in a published commentary discussing contemporary political thought in Chile.

Selected works Sein und Staat. Königshausen & Neumann, 2005. Carl Schmitt als politischer Philosoph. Duncker & Humblot, 2010. La derecha en la crisis del bicentenario. Ediciones UDP, 2015. Octubre en Chile. Katankura, 2019. Carl Schmitt Between Technological Rationality and Theology. SUNY Press, 2020.