Erotyzm ducha i życia w filozofii kultury Tomasza Manna

The article concerns Thomas Mann’s view on culture and on anthropology. The analyses of the works by the German writer point at the relations between his conception and Fridrich Schiller’s conception of man as a sensuous and sprititual being. Mann’s works, such as Death in Venice or The Magic Mountain are the literary equivalent of the unfinished essay on aesthetics On Spirit and Art. The author stresses the important role of eroticism in the description of culture. Eroticism should be conceived in a wide sense, not only in relation to bodily desire, but as a basis of aesthetic experience. Seen from this angle, Mann’s writings contain a series of reflections about culture and about man, reflections rooted in the modern conceptions presented by Kant and Schiller and later developed by contemporary psychoanalysis and the philosophy of existence.