Research project: Commentary on Friedrich Nietzsche's "Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft" (The Gay Science)

Friedrich Nietzsche's work The Gay Science is one of the most important books in Western intellectual history. It includes critical reflections on truth, knowledge and insight, morality and religion. In a way, it is a key text on the relation of religion and modernity. The project aims to produce a comprehensive philological commentary, and, in addition, a detailed description of the composition of the first print of the Gay Science, plus notes on the context of the book in Nietzsche's thinking and oeuvre, as well as on the sources he used. Finally, the project will highlight perspectives that make the text relevant for today's discourse on the relation of religion and modernity as a central theme for Europe.