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The "whole truth" that Nietzsche is talking about is the truth of human history and human origins, the truth about our evolution. The best so far lacked sufficient sense for this whole truth because 1) such a history was not available to them, and 2) when it became available none was clever enough to think it through to its implications. As Heidegger says, "Nietzsche is the first thinker, who in view of a world history emerging for the first time, asks the decisive question and thinks through its metaphysical implications." What are the metaphysical implications of evolution? That life has no meaning. That there is nothing special about any individual, that the history of life on Earth is a blind process groping toward preservation of the species, that the universe and the Earth cares nothing for you and your questions and your struggles. When this truth becomes part of humanity, when people really understand it at a gut level, they will be liberated from seeking purpose, from the ravings and myth-making of the teachers of the purpose of existence. Then perhaps they will laugh out of this wisdom, out of the whole truth, and they will see that all that's left--if there is no purpose and no meaning--is to learn and to experiment for the sake of learning--i.e. gay science.

Later on Nietzsche would realize that it's not quite so simple, that the whole truth is capable of breaking some people, that you need to mask such insights so that only people who can handle it and know how to see behind the mask become privy to such hard truths. But, the first four books of The Gay Science was written during his "positivist" phase and he was still hopeful and somewhat naive. After Zarathustra, his philosophy would take an uncanny turn.

The "whole truth" that Nietzsche is talking about is the truth of human history and human origins, the truth about our evolution. The best so far lacked sufficient sense for this whole truth because 1) such a history was not available to them, and 2) when it became available none was clever enough to think it through to its implications. As Heidegger says, "Nietzsche is the first thinker, who in view of a world history emerging for the first time, asks the decisive question and thinks through its metaphysical implications." What are the metaphysical implications of evolution? That life has no meaning. That there is nothing special about any individual, that the history of life on Earth is a blind process groping toward preservation of the species--"the species is always everything,"--that the universe cares nothing for you, your questions, your struggles--"one is always none." When this truth becomes part of humanity, when people really understand it at a gut level, they will be liberated from seeking purpose, from the ravings and myth-making of the teachers of the purpose of existence. Then perhaps they will laugh out of this wisdom, out of "the whole truth," and they will see that all that's left--if there is no purpose and no meaning--is to learn and to experiment for the sake of learning--i.e. gay science.

Later on Nietzsche would realize that it's not quite so simple, that the whole truth is capable of breaking some people, that you need to mask such insights so that only people who can handle it and know how to see behind the mask become privy to such hard truths. But, the first four books of The Gay Science was written during his "positivist" phase and he was still hopeful and somewhat naïve. After Zarathustra, his philosophy would take an uncanny turn.

The "whole truth" that Nietzsche is talking about is the truth of human history and human origins, the truth about our evolution. The best so far lacked sufficient sense for this whole truth because 1) such a history was not available to them, and 2) when it became available none was clever enough to think it through to its implications. As Heidegger says, "Nietzsche is the first thinker, who in view of a world history emerging for the first time, asks the decisive question and thinks through its metaphysical implications." What are the metaphysical implications of evolution? That life has no meaning. That there is nothing special about any individual, that the history of life on Earth is a blind process groping toward preservation of the species, that the universe and the Earth cares nothing for you and your questions and your struggles. When this truth becomes part of humanity, when people really understand it at a gut level, they will be liberated from seeking purpose, from the ravings and myth-making of the teachers of the purpose of existence. Then perhaps they will laugh out of this wisdom, out of the whole truth, and they will see that all that's left--if there is no purpose and no meaning--is to learn and to experiment for the sake of learning--i.e. gay science. Later on Nietzsche would realize that it's not quite so simple, that the whole truth is capable of breaking some people, that you need to mask such insights so that only people who can handle it and know how to see behind the mask become privy to such hard truths. But, the first four books of The Gay Science was written during his "positivist" phase and he was still hopeful and somewhat naive. After Zarathustra, his philosophy would take an uncanny turn.

The "whole truth" that Nietzsche is talking about is the truth of human history and human origins, the truth about our evolution. The best so far lacked sufficient sense for this whole truth because 1) such a history was not available to them, and 2) when it became available none was clever enough to think it through to its implications. As Heidegger says, "Nietzsche is the first thinker, who in view of a world history emerging for the first time, asks the decisive question and thinks through its metaphysical implications." What are the metaphysical implications of evolution? That life has no meaning. That there is nothing special about any individual, that the history of life on Earth is a blind process groping toward preservation of the species, that the universe and the Earth cares nothing for you and your questions and your struggles. When this truth becomes part of humanity, when people really understand it at a gut level, they will be liberated from seeking purpose, from the ravings and myth-making of the teachers of the purpose of existence. Then perhaps they will laugh out of this wisdom, out of the whole truth, and they will see that all that's left--if there is no purpose and no meaning--is to learn and to experiment for the sake of learning--i.e. gay science. 

Later on Nietzsche would realize that it's not quite so simple, that the whole truth is capable of breaking some people, that you need to mask such insights so that only people who can handle it and know how to see behind the mask become privy to such hard truths. But, the first four books of The Gay Science was written during his "positivist" phase and he was still hopeful and somewhat naive. After Zarathustra, his philosophy would take an uncanny turn.

The "whole truth" that Nietzsche is talking about is the truth of human history and human origins, the truth about our evolution. The best so far lacked sufficient sense for this whole truth because 1) such a history was not available to them, and 2) when it became available none was clever enough to think it through to its implications. As Heidegger says, "Nietzsche is the first thinker, who in view of a world history emerging for the first time, asks the decisive question and thinks through its metaphysical implications." What are the metaphysical implications of evolution? That life has no meaning. That there is nothing special about any individual, that the history of life on Earth is a blind process groping toward preservation of the species, that the universe and the Earth cares nothing for you and your questions and your struggles. When this truth becomes part of humanity, when people really understand it at a gut level, they will be liberated from seeking purpose, from the ravings and myth-making of the teachers of the purpose of existence. Then perhaps they will laugh out of this wisdom, out of the whole truth, and they will see that all that's left--if there is no purpose and no meaning--is to learn and to experiment for the sake of learning--i.e. gay science.

The "whole truth" that Nietzsche is talking about is the truth of human history and human origins, the truth about our evolution. The best so far lacked sufficient sense for this whole truth because 1) such a history was not available to them, and 2) when it became available none was clever enough to think it through to its implications. As Heidegger says, "Nietzsche is the first thinker, who in view of a world history emerging for the first time, asks the decisive question and thinks through its metaphysical implications." What are the metaphysical implications of evolution? That life has no meaning. That there is nothing special about any individual, that the history of life on Earth is a blind process groping toward preservation of the species, that the universe and the Earth cares nothing for you and your questions and your struggles. When this truth becomes part of humanity, when people really understand it at a gut level, they will be liberated from seeking purpose, from the ravings and myth-making of the teachers of the purpose of existence. Then perhaps they will laugh out of this wisdom, out of the whole truth, and they will see that all that's left--if there is no purpose and no meaning--is to learn and to experiment for the sake of learning--i.e. gay science. Later on Nietzsche would realize that it's not quite so simple, that the whole truth is capable of breaking some people, that you need to mask such insights so that only people who can handle it and know how to see behind the mask become privy to such hard truths. But, the first four books of The Gay Science was written during his "positivist" phase and he was still hopeful and somewhat naive. After Zarathustra, his philosophy would take an uncanny turn.