Passion and Eternity in Friedrich Nietzsche's The Gay Science

This thesis analyses Friedrich Nietzsche's (1844-1900) development of an art of livingindebted to classical and Hellenistic philosophies in The Gay Science. Nietzsche's debtto the ancients revolves around their shared conception of philosophy as an "art ofhealing the soul".1 The philosopher as therapist or physician is one who cares for thesoul in the same way the medical doctor cares for the body. While the theme of thephilosophical physician is a constant presence in Nietzsche's oeuvre, his most directengagement with ancient therapies occurs throughout the 'free-spirit trilogy', whichculminates in 1882's The Gay Science.2 The ancient therapeutic tradition grantsNietzsche a standpoint from which he can await a "philosophical physician in theexceptional sense of that word".3 Compared with his and our contemporaries, thisorientation radically alters what is at stake in the practice of philosophy, in Nietzsche'swords, not "'truth' but something else-let us say, health, future, growth, power, life".