Sur la polarité entre “esthésique” et “poïétique”Une analyse du Discours sur l’esthétique de Valéry

The essay concerns the "Discours sur l'esthétique" pronounced by Paul Valéry on eight August 1937 at the "Deuxième Congrès International d'Esthetique et de Science de l'art". The "Discourse on aesthetics" is analyzed in the light of the paradigmatic and generative polarities that define Valery's philosophical and poetical thought: from the polarity Self-World to that between Dance and Architecture. In this theoretical framework is then focused the polarity between "Esthésique" and "Poïétique": the two essential parts, in which the original conception of aesthetics outlined by Valéry is articulated. The Discourse of 1937 is, therefore, interpreted in the context of the crucial reflections on sensation and sensibility contained in the whole of Valery's "Cahiers". In the sphere of these reflections is then analyzed the issue of pleasure as the origin of an aesthetic attitude in the human world. Conclusively, it is detected and emphasized the constitutive relationship that for Valéry connect aesthetics and energetics.