Gay Science (Thrift Editions)

Although dour in appearance and formidable in reputation | Friedrich Nietzsche was an ardent practitioner of the art of poetry&;known in twelfth-century Provençal as the gay science. This extensive collection of prose and verse offers a sophisticated treatment of the philosophical themes and views central to his thinking | as well as the ideas that proved most influential to later philosophers. Dating from the era when Nietzsche was at the peak of his intellectual powers | most of this book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra | and the rest of it five years later | after Beyond Good and Evil. Zarathustra makes his first appearance in these pages | along with the author's well-known proclamation of the death of God. Readers will find this volume a wellspring for some of Nietzsche's most sustained and thought-provoking discussions of art and morality | knowledge and truth | the intellectual conscience | and the origin of logic | as well as the largest collection of Nietzsche's published poetry.