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Nietzsche called The Gay Science "the most personal of all my books." It was here that he first proclaimed the death of God — to which a large part of the book is devoted — and his doctrine of the eternal recurrence.
Walter Kaufmann's commentary, with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters, brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy. The book contains some of Nietzsche's most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience and the origin of logic.
Most of the book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the last part five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil. We encounter Zarathustra in these pages as well as many of Nietzsche's most interesting philosophical ideas and the largest collection of his own poetry that he himself ever published.
Walter Kaufmann's English versions of Nietzsche represent one of the major translation enterprises of our time. He is the first philosopher to have translated Nietzsche's major works, and never before has a single translator given us so much of Nietzsche.
Anonymous
Posted January 24, 2013
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Anonymous
Posted May 5, 2003
This is the best of Nietzsche, in clarity and tempo and spirit. And Kaufmann gives it justice as no one else can. If one is looking for the quickest path to the heart of Nietzsche, indomitable and free, chuck the portable and pick up this one. Five stars would characterize most of the rest of Nietzsche's books, but this one sets the bar for those.
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Posted July 15, 2011
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Overview
Nietzsche called The Gay Science "the most personal of all my books." It was here that he first proclaimed the death of God — to which a large part of the book is devoted — and his doctrine of the eternal recurrence.
Walter Kaufmann's commentary, with its many quotations from previously untranslated letters, brings to life Nietzsche as a human being and illuminates his philosophy. The book contains some of Nietzsche's most sustained discussions...