The Joyful Science: Bilingual English & German Edition

Friedrich Nietzsche

Newcomb Livraria Press

About this ebook

A new 2023 translation into American English from the original manuscript of Nietzsche's 1882 "Die fröhliche Wissenschaft". This is sometimes translated as "The Gay Science" or "The Happy Science" or "The Joyful Wisdom". This edition is bilingual- the original text is included in the back as reference material behind the English translation. This is volume 5 in The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche from Newcomb Livraria Press. This chronological, systematic set of Nietzsche's works is the first ever bilingual "Hauptwerke" or complete major works of Nietzsche published in English & the original German. The Joyful Science is perhaps his clearest explanation of his Epistemology in relation to his entire philosophic project. Here he writes about the Tautology of Anti-Metaphysical positions, for the very impetuous of them is rooted in Metaphysical assumptions (namely, that objective truth matters at all). Nietzsche’s megalomania begins to bloom in the Joyful Science, taking full form in The Twilight of the Idols. He continues his philosophy of negation and takes on every figure of western philosophy individually, and sometimes in pairs and groups. Christianity, he calls “a permanent suicide of reason” but also for the first time he talks about how the very preoccupation with truth has it’s origin in the “peasant morality” of Christianity.

About the author

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, and poet whose work left a profound imprint on modern intellectual history. Born on October 15, 1844, in Röcken, Prussia, Nietzsche was raised in a household steeped in religious tradition, which he would later come to question and critique. He demonstrated exceptional intellectual capabilities from a young age and went on to study classical philology at the University of Bonn and later at the University of Leipzig. Nietzsche's early career as a philologist was marked by his appointment as a professor at the University of Basel at the remarkably young age of 24. However, his burgeoning interest in philosophy soon overshadowed his philological work. His initial philosophical influences included Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner, although he would later distance himself from both. Nietzsche's philosophical journey is characterized by a profound skepticism of traditional values and moral systems, leading him to question foundational concepts of truth, morality, religion, and the nature of existence.