Politica ed esistenza : Rousseau in Germania tra Thomas Mann e Carl Schmitt

Politics and Existence: Rousseau in Germany between Thomas Mann and Carl Schmitt. This article analyses the interpretation of Rousseau's figure and ideas in Thomas Mann's Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen and in some of Carl Schmitt's early writings as noteworthy examples of the seldom considered role of the Genevan philosopher in the intellectual context of the socalled Conservative Revolution. On the one hand, the Author considers the peculiarities of each of the two thinkers' views, such as Mann's different attitudes towards Rousseau's autobiographical and political texts or the influence of the French critic Ernest Seillière on the evolution of Schmitt's interpretation. On the other hand, the two positions are compared, highlighting both similarities and differences and drawing some general theoretical conclusions on their conception of the "political". [Publisher's text].