Question

The quotation from Valéry that best expresses what he meant by the “crisis of the mind” that Europe experienced after World War I is _____.

“We had long heard tell of whole worlds that had vanished, of empires sunk without a trace, gone down with all their men and all their machines into the unexplorable depths of the centuries . . . ”
“Never has so much been read, nor with such passion, as during the war: ask the booksellers . . . Never have people prayed so much and so deeply: ask the priests.”
“The military crisis may be over. The economic crisis is still with us in all its force. But the intellectual crisis, being more subtle and, by its nature, assuming the most deceptive appearances . . . this crisis will hardly allow us to grasp its true extent, its phase.”
“No one can say what will be dead or alive tomorrow, in literature, philosophy, aesthetics; no one yet knows what ideas and modes of expression will be inscribed on the casualty list, what novelties will be proclaimed. Hope, of course, remains . . . ”

Answer 1

Answer: “The military crisis may be over. The economic crisis is still with us in all its force. But the intellectual crisis, being more subtle and, by its nature, assuming the most deceptive appearances . . . this crisis will hardly allow us to grasp its true extent, its phase.”

Valéry describes the effects of the war on the European continent. He argues that, as the war came to an end, the military crisis ended as well. The economic crisis remained and was difficult to overcome. However, the intellectual crisis was difficult to judge just yet, because of its extent. It was a more subtle and deceptive crisis, but equally real. This was the "crisis of the mind" in Europe.

Answer 2

“The military crisis may be over. The economic crisis is still with us in all its force. But the intellectual crisis, being more subtle and, by its nature, assuming the most deceptive appearances . . . this crisis will hardly allow us to grasp its true extent, its phase.”

Valery described Europe after the war as undergoing through rapid revival of its thought, dogmas, philosophies and ideals. He wrote of inventors trying to think of strategies, studying past events, in order to win the war. Europe has seek refuge and guidance. The crisis of the mind is invisible unlike military and economic crisis, but it exists in the phase after the war.