The Gay Science
by Friedrich Nietzsche 
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God is dead, Friedrich Nietzsche unflinchingly declared in this famous work of philosophy. It is one of the boldest statements ever made, and garnered far-reaching, strong reactions. In addition to being the book containing the words that shook the world, The Gay Science includes Nietzsche's arguments on ethics and knowledge. It is no wonder The Gay Science is known in some circles by the title The Joyful Wisdom.Tags
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The Gay Science: the source of and solution to all your worries about lack of meaning in life. That is how it feels right now anyway.
I came to this book to find out Nietzsche's interpretation of reality and framework of life; what was his answer to the question - what should one do? As to interpretation of reality it is hard to be disappointed; there are so many compelling conclusions on all aspects of humanity, language, morality and existence - delivered on the most part with wit and clarity. Here and there it is spoiled by the odd super long sentence or vague metaphor that tests the limits of comprehension, but it is still a gold-mine of ideas in bite-size chunks. Recipe for two: read a few pages on a low heat, set simmering for 20 show more minutes (perhaps go for a walk or bike ride) and serve immediately to a companion. For me its been the source of most of the best topics of conversation for the last half year.
What about a framework of life? Philosophy for me is the attempt to concisely describe reality and help us decide how to live - to arrive at a theory/framework, relying on the most irreducible and unshakable axioms, which singles out some courses of action as the better ones. I did not find anything like this. After all the talk of his free spirit type, I arrive at perhaps contradictory conclusions: on the one hand I have many scattered ideas about the life he presents persuasively as a good one, but on the other hand I hear the louder message 'Be yourself!'.I wonder if such things as axioms and basic truths existed in Nietzsche's head and he chose not to present things that way - or whether he really did think as he wrote.
He persuades me better than books on Buddhism did to mistrust dichotomies - I feel like he has succeeded where they failed because he reasoned more forcefully the many contradictions we can stumble upon when demanding clear reasoned black-and-white everlasting truths. I am left feeling more alone and lost than ever in my head, but more at peace and at home in the universe. I feel less secure of my ideas about how to live, but far less urgency to remedy that. I feel profoundly happier, and equally sad. Everything, everything, everything. show less
I came to this book to find out Nietzsche's interpretation of reality and framework of life; what was his answer to the question - what should one do? As to interpretation of reality it is hard to be disappointed; there are so many compelling conclusions on all aspects of humanity, language, morality and existence - delivered on the most part with wit and clarity. Here and there it is spoiled by the odd super long sentence or vague metaphor that tests the limits of comprehension, but it is still a gold-mine of ideas in bite-size chunks. Recipe for two: read a few pages on a low heat, set simmering for 20 show more minutes (perhaps go for a walk or bike ride) and serve immediately to a companion. For me its been the source of most of the best topics of conversation for the last half year.
What about a framework of life? Philosophy for me is the attempt to concisely describe reality and help us decide how to live - to arrive at a theory/framework, relying on the most irreducible and unshakable axioms, which singles out some courses of action as the better ones. I did not find anything like this. After all the talk of his free spirit type, I arrive at perhaps contradictory conclusions: on the one hand I have many scattered ideas about the life he presents persuasively as a good one, but on the other hand I hear the louder message 'Be yourself!'.I wonder if such things as axioms and basic truths existed in Nietzsche's head and he chose not to present things that way - or whether he really did think as he wrote.
He persuades me better than books on Buddhism did to mistrust dichotomies - I feel like he has succeeded where they failed because he reasoned more forcefully the many contradictions we can stumble upon when demanding clear reasoned black-and-white everlasting truths. I am left feeling more alone and lost than ever in my head, but more at peace and at home in the universe. I feel less secure of my ideas about how to live, but far less urgency to remedy that. I feel profoundly happier, and equally sad. Everything, everything, everything. show less
The majority if this book consists of just under 400 short pieces, between a few lines and couple of pages in length, in which Nietzsche delivers his profound reflexions and aphorisms. There are also a few poems at the beginning and the end. .
The outlook of the pieces are quite varied, and if you flicked though, picked one, and read it, you might be cheered up, made to think about a miscellaneous issue, pushed towards an existential abyss, or just feel like going outside for walk. I will list a small selection of the varied headings of the pieces that stood out to me as I flicked through just now:
"The Danger of Vegetarians", "Too Oriental", "The Origin of Religion", "Dignity of Folly", "Against Remorse", "Work and Ennui", show more "Epicurus",
"The Way to Happiness"
There is quite a variety of things that are written about in this book, which might give it more appeal than some of his other ones. The way that Nietzsche writes is not technical, but his ideas will be more easily received by some people than others. I happen to agree with a lot of it, but some of it is also subversive, he entices us with the poetic sentiment, but after analysis we realise it is callous, or amoral.
Due to the structure of the book, and the fact that a lot seems to be said in each of the pieces, it will probably be a book that the reader will come back to, and re-read, after the initial reading. I did read the book right through, but it would be easy to read one piece and then spend five minutes thinking about it, over a cup of tea, then move onto another.
But if you don't like to think about deep issues, are intellectually squeamish, or don't like philosophy, then you will probably want to avoid this book. But for anyone who likes to think, then this is a book that will be quite enjoyed. show less
The outlook of the pieces are quite varied, and if you flicked though, picked one, and read it, you might be cheered up, made to think about a miscellaneous issue, pushed towards an existential abyss, or just feel like going outside for walk. I will list a small selection of the varied headings of the pieces that stood out to me as I flicked through just now:
"The Danger of Vegetarians", "Too Oriental", "The Origin of Religion", "Dignity of Folly", "Against Remorse", "Work and Ennui", show more "Epicurus",
"The Way to Happiness"
There is quite a variety of things that are written about in this book, which might give it more appeal than some of his other ones. The way that Nietzsche writes is not technical, but his ideas will be more easily received by some people than others. I happen to agree with a lot of it, but some of it is also subversive, he entices us with the poetic sentiment, but after analysis we realise it is callous, or amoral.
Due to the structure of the book, and the fact that a lot seems to be said in each of the pieces, it will probably be a book that the reader will come back to, and re-read, after the initial reading. I did read the book right through, but it would be easy to read one piece and then spend five minutes thinking about it, over a cup of tea, then move onto another.
But if you don't like to think about deep issues, are intellectually squeamish, or don't like philosophy, then you will probably want to avoid this book. But for anyone who likes to think, then this is a book that will be quite enjoyed. show less
Já leio Nietzsche a um tempo razoável, mas admito que ele ainda me surpreende. Muito já foi dito sobre este filósofo e tudo, mas da minha parte posso dizer que ele é o tipo de pensador que te ajuda a pensar mesmo que seja para contra-argumentar, e que, portanto, lê-lo nunca é uma leitura desperdiçada. Ainda: leia-o como quem quer conhecer, curioso, de mente aberta; ele escreve muito bem, e só por isso ele merece a fama que tem. Se algumas passagens parecerem difíceis, pule, o livro é rico em notas de tradução, mas algumas referências só mesmo um especialista poderia decifrar. É deste livro a famosa frase, "Deus está morto". Recomendo muito a leitura, até mesmo por que Nietzsche é traído pela forma aforística de sua show more escrita, que, para quem não quer um livro inteiro ou uma sequência de aforismo, é um prato cheio; muitas da má interpretações de Nietzsche está no fato de que ninguém lê nem mesmo o aforismo citado em sua inteireza. Esse aforismo sobre a morte de Deus, por exemplo ( aforismo 108) é contextualizado na crítica que Nietzsche faz á toda religião, incluindo o budismo, pois a ciência revolucionou o conhecimento humano. show less
Not so much a review of Nietzsche's book as a comment on the review placed here by mrellis64; Nietzsche posits the idea that one should live a life so full, so enjoyable, that one would be happy to have to live it over and over again "for eternity". mrellis64 asks "what changes would you make?", thereby missing the central point that one cannot make any changes. There would be no circumstances in which one would be aware that any changes might be beneficial (or detrimental for that matter).
Imagine, if you will, that you (and everyone else) had to keep living the same life over and over again for eternity. What changes would you make? Nietzsche’s theory of the Eternal Recurrence should make us all stop and examine the lives we are leading. A must read!
This seems to be a zenith in Nietzsche's moral writings. Nietzsche is a confident writer in The Gay Science, and is more direct in his moral opinions. However, I will always hold over Nietzsche his lack of proper writings skills. One must piece together Nietzsche's philosophical creativity from his bothersome opinions.
This work is where most of Nietzsche's ideas begin. The poetry was unexpected, even though poetry is "the gay science". I routinely reflect on La Rochefoucauld's Maxims, and The Gay Science follows a similar structure. Based on my own reading, I also see elements of Voltaire's style. La Rochefoucauld's influence on Nietzsche has been acknowledged by numerous scholars, such as Brendan Donnellan, but also to Voltaire. Writing in the New Republic, Jacob Soll includes Nietzsche as an extension of Voltaire in terms of the critique of religion, which interestingly extends into a critique of socialism. (In the Marxian tradition, religion is the "opiate of the masses".) Borrowing from Mortimer Adler, my approach to reading Nietzsche is to read show more it myself, and later to look toward critiques of his work, so I am pleased that my connections between La Rochefoucauld and Voltaire do not stray from the mark. Nevertheless, my comparison was based purely on Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique and La Rochefoucauld's Maxims, rather than an in-depth study of either. In many ways, Nietzsche sets out the work as a dictionary of his ideas, not so much in the style of aphorisms, but certainly as a form of developing his own ideas in the style of a list of definitions, ideas, critiques, and polemics. Having said that, Nietzsche points out so many things that remain relevant today, including working for the sake of work, the "non-voluntariness in forming opinions" in academia, and even Rousseau's idea (apparently Nietzsche disliked Rousseau's work) of experience being "dearly bought and hardly worth the cost", nationalism, and the idea that science is not rational but merely a form of metaphysics where we attempt to measure things that are for the most part immeasurable, just to name a few. I also noticed echoes of Nietzsche in the work of Anton Chekhov and Albert Camus. But to return to Jacob Soll, who suggests that, in the US, the Enlightenment has been more or less abandoned, provides an interesting counter-point to what routinely appears in political debates in Australia. For example, the Enlightenment is often reified as the benchmark for all things good, yet, much like the US, there seems to be a disconnect with the great thinkers of the Enlightenment. (Soll, in effect, includes Nietzsche as an extension of the Enlightenment heavy-weights.) What this indicates to me is a weakness in my own understanding based on the glossed-over ideas of the Enlightenment that are too often taken-for-granted. I need to read much more and not just the philosophers, and Nietzsche points out Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer (that "pedantic Englishman") as worthy of further critique. Rather than suggesting we do what the social sciences try to do now by emulating the natural sciences, Nietzsche suggests we should, in effect, refer to the social sciences as "the unnatural sciences". Which brings me to an interesting observation. The Delphic Oracle's motto, "Know thyself" is based on the idea that knowledge (as Nietzsche suggests) is simply about attaching something we do not know to something we already know. So rather than seeking to understand, we seek to know. This subtle yet powerful difference seems to link to the Dionysian approach that Nietzsche develops in his later works. In many ways, it is also a critique of the natural sciences, especially Newton ("If I have seen further it is by standing on the sholders [sic] of giants"). In the current era, everything must be measured or it is not valued (and to quote Galileo, "Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so" - see also the Canadian designer, Bruce Mau). Nietzsche provides one of the best critiques of these ideas, and in ways I would never have dreamt of in a lifetime of thinking. He also has his usual go at Aristotle, Socrates, the Stoics, yet seems to agree with Epicurus, and introduces Zarathustra, but I think I have only seen the tip of the iceberg. I intend to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra for my next Nietzsche reading, but I can only imagine how much I am missing as I have not the complete grasp (is it even possible?) of the many influences that Nietzsche draws on. It would seem logical that to read Nietzsche, one might begin at the beginning and work through in chronological order. Then again, I would have lost so much had I read this book early on, as many of Nietzsche's ideas remain largely undeveloped, at least in terms of how he converses with the reader. Interestingly, Nietzsche suggests that we only know something when we are able to discuss it. But this is simply the herd instinct monopolising our intellect. If we seek rather to understand than to "know", we may well not be able to communicate it at all. I think this is what Nietzsche captures best in this work, and I would hazard a guess that his poems pick up on this theme, and his epilogue (mirrored in the final poem) invites us to "dance". It doesn't matter if you do not understand the Minstrel, but the more you can hear the music and the melody, so much better can you... dance. I can dance! show less
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Author Information
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The son of a Lutheran pastor, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was born in 1844 in Roecken, Prussia, and studied classical philology at the Universities of Bonn and Leipzig. While at Leipzig he read the works of Schopenhauer, which greatly impressed him. He also became a disciple of the composer Richard Wagner. At the very early age of 25, Nietzsche show more was appointed professor at the University of Basel in Switzerland. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian War, Nietzsche served in the medical corps of the Prussian army. While treating soldiers he contracted diphtheria and dysentery; he was never physically healthy afterward. Nietzsche's first book, The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music (1872), was a radical reinterpretation of Greek art and culture from a Schopenhaurian and Wagnerian standpoint. By 1874 Nietzsche had to retire from his university post for reasons of health. He was diagnosed at this time with a serious nervous disorder. He lived the next 15 years on his small university pension, dividing his time between Italy and Switzerland and writing constantly. He is best known for the works he produced after 1880, especially The Gay Science (1882), Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-85), Beyond Good and Evil (1886), On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), The Antichrist (1888), and Twilight of the Idols (1888). In January 1889, Nietzsche suffered a sudden mental collapse; he lived the last 10 years of his life in a condition of insanity. After his death, his sister published many of his papers under the title The Will to Power. Nietzsche was a radical questioner who often wrote polemically with deliberate obscurity, intending to perplex, shock, and offend his readers. He attacked the entire metaphysical tradition in Western philosophy, especially Christianity and Christian morality, which he thought had reached its final and most decadent form in modern scientific humanism, with its ideals of liberalism and democracy. It has become increasingly clear that his writings are among the deepest and most prescient sources we have for acquiring a philosophical understanding of the roots of 20th-century culture. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Friedrich Nietzsche has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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Básica de bolsillo (59)
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Is contained in
Friedrich Nietzsche: Sämtliche Werke (Kommentiert) mit verlinktem Inhaltsverzeichnis by Friedrich Nietzsche
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Gay Science
- Original title
- Die fröhliche Wissenschaft
- Alternate titles
- The Joyous Wisdom; The Joyous Science
- Original publication date
- 1882-07
- Important places
- Messina, Sicily, Italy; Sicily, Italy; Italy
- First words
- Wagt's mit meiner Kost, ihr Esser!
(Take a chance and try my fare) - Quotations
- God is dead.
Morality is herd instinct in the individual.
The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
To find everything profound - that is an inconvenient trait. It makes one strain one's eyes all the time, and in the end one finds more than one might have wished.
We are always in our own company.
For believe me: the secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and greatest enjoyment is - to live dangerously.
I would not know what the spirit of a philosopher might wish more to be than a good dancer.
Supposing all these labors to be accomplished, the most critical of all questions would then come into the foreground: whether science is in a position to furnish goals for human action, after it has proved that it can take t... (show all)hem away and annihilate them. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Wirf ihn höher, ferner, weiter, / Stürm' empor die Himmelsleiter, / Häng' ihn—an die Sternen auf! (Toss it higher, further, gladder, / storm up on the heavens' ladder, / hang it up—upon a star.)
- Original language*
- saksa
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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