Love and Fate: Nietzsche's The Gay Science Book IV

Abstract

This paper explores the central themes of Nietzsche's The Gay Science: death of God, amor fati (love of fate), eternal return, and the figure of Zarathustra. It argues that at the centre of Book IV is a new idea of love that is Nietzsche's response to a godless world filled with hollow idols. Although he would not try to articulate that idea until his book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, all of the material was put in place in Book IV. This paper argues for the importance of Book IV and the need to read it on its own terms, despite the difficulty in doing so.

Keywords: Nietzsche; The Gay Science; Death of God; Eternal Return; Love of Fate

JEL Classification: Z10