![]() Nietzsche's allusion to the 'Provencal' in the title (and echoed in the subtitle) of invokes the troubadour’s art (or 'technic') of poetic song, an art at once secret, anonymous and thus nonsubjective, but also including logical disputation, for which it is the model, and comprising, perhaps above all, the important ideal of action (and pathos) at a distance: l’amour lointain. I suggest that this is precisely what Nietzsche refers to as gay science: a performative knowledge that rewards itself in its progress and results, therefore improving its intellectual strength through joy. Against the errors that structure modern thought, Nietzsche recommends a method of subverting concepts and categories of knowledge that should be joyful, that is, that intensifies the feeling of power. Nietzsche declares war against, and intends to surpass, all concepts that make life weak, such as identity, the "thing in itself," the unity of things, systems and God, among others. If will to power is shown to be an increasing force overcoming resistances, gay science is, in turn, a way of rectifying the errors and mistakes that constitute knowledge and science. Fundamentally, Gaya Scienza embodies the logic of one's will to power, the passage from a week state of forces into a stronger one, and is thus a symbol for getting stronger. ![]() In this article, I aim at explaining a central aspect of Nietzsche's notion of gay science.
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