Book five

sections 343–355

pp. 215-228

in: Monika Langer, Nietzsche's Gay science, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

Abstract

Book Four's last sections explored self-knowledge, feelings about the past and future, and knowledge and feelings about others and about life. They concluded with Zarathustra's descent to teach others about God's death and its implications. In keeping with its subtitle, Book Five opens with the intrepid and free-spirited, Nietzschean philosophers' cheerful response to God's death. In these sections Nietzsche examines the meaning and consequences of God's death. He also draws attention to its implications for our conceptions of so-called knowledge and morality, and suggests conventional morality masks our weaknesses.