Quelques considérations sur et avec Valéry: l'homme qui se pense et qui pense l'Europe

The present article identifies in Paul Valéry’s poetics two major axes: the man thinking the Self and thinking Europe. At first, the interest goes to the methodical and systematic reflection of the Pure Self. The pastiche "I invent, therefore I am" expresses the commitment of the essayist to the quest of the cogito (in la vita activa and la vita contemplatia). His poetics reveals a meta-textual consciousness of the European man as well as of the Europe within Europe. These double strands highlight a political and cultural image of Europe and the conceptual Europe.