The annual L'invention de l'Europe par les langues et les cultures chair was created in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture (Délégation générale à la langue française et aux langues de France).
In his famous Discourse on the Dignity of Man(Oratio de hominis dignitate, 1486), Renaissance scholar Pico della Mirandola has the Creator of the world address Adam as follows: " If we have made you neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, it is so that as a free(arbitrarius) and honorable(honorarius) sculptor and shaper of yourself(tui ipsius plastes et fictor), you may shape(effingas) yourself entirely according to the form you have chosen. "
Starting from the premise that the cultural greatness we call " Europe " can be conceived by analogy as a multiple Adamic personality which, in the course of its recent history, has produced a plurality of self-conceptions and self-ostylisations, I would like to present a journey through various statements by European thinkers about Europe's " essence ", assembled into a multiperspectivist and polyphonic whole. As this whole is best represented in the image of a reference library or bibliographic tool, the systems of statements to be presented concerning Europe could be considered as books in which I have inserted a bookmark or a bookmark at each significant place in order to find the important element more easily.
I shall limit my choice to authors of the twentieth century, each of whom in his or her own way has shown sensitivity to the fact that Europe is in the process of ceding its role as a central power in world history to other players. All these authors seem to agree with Kierkegaard's motto that life is understood upside down while being lived right side up. As far as Europe is concerned, this means that this " autre cap " possesses a superabundant treasure trove of retrospective understanding, even if the future looks precarious, problematic and even in some respects threatening.
