Zbigniew Herbert in the context of congress dilemmas on mass and elite culture

The author considers one of the issues discussed during the VI Congress of Polish Culture (September 23-25, 2009). The first part constitutes a report on conference proceedings and an attempt to answer the question whether culture should be addressed to the masses or whether it should be elitist? In the second part of the paper, the author attempts to answer the above question by referring to the thought of Zbigniew Herbert - poet and essayist. The author of this article proposes two types of culture (distinguished on the basis of previous arguments). The first is the intellectual culture (creative), the second is the integral culture (relational). Both together make up the common culture, understood in the broadest sense. The both of them could be developed by the proper cultural policy of the state.