DESCARTES, LA METTRIE AND SZOPKA
The object of the study in the article is the anatomical mechanicism of the European culture as an essential and significant imperative that influences the mental models not only of modern medical practices or constructing the corporeality of a modern man, but almost every phenomenon of the New European reality. The authors consider the main positions of this anatomical mechanicism in the works by Descartes and La Mettrie and turn to the analysis of the phenomenon of the Polish mechanical szopka, which acts as the symbolic condensation of this imperative. In the works by Descartes and La Mettrie, as well as in the “toys” of the Polish master, the authors of the text reveal the actions of the same mechanisms and cultural identification scenarios that set up the mental optics of a modern man.