The Art of Living: The Roles of Art and Science

Who shall I be? How do I become? What highest value(s) ought I aspire toward? What is the end and aim of life? The Art of Living refers to the project and the problem of our lives as characterized by these fundamental questions.

This discussion will explore implications for our Art of Living gleaned from the book "The Gay Science" (aka "The Joyful Wisdom") by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900). What does Nietzsche think about the roles of art, science, affirmation, and uniqueness in our lives? To what highest value(s) does Nietzsche urge us to aspire? What does he think the end and aim of our lives ought to be? What can we learn from Nietzsche about addressing the problem and the project of our lives? What can Nietzsche teach us about who to be and how to become? For you personally, what is the role of art, science, affirmation, and uniqueness in your life? How do these values fit into your art of living?

http://know.freelibrary.org/vufind/bookcover.php?isn=0394719859&size=medium

The plan for the discussion is to follow the Stanford lectures on Nietzsche, so it is recommended that you watch these three 50 minute videos:

• What one Should Learn from Artists by Joshua Landy (http://vimeo.com/21818183)

http://vimeo.com/21818183

• Recurrence and Redemption or Why Science is just as Necessary as Art by R. Lanier Anderson (http://vimeo.com/22003558)

http://vimeo.com/22003558

• Morality Strikes Back? by Kenneth Taylor (http://vimeo.com/22148004)

http://vimeo.com/22148004

I recommend getting an overview by watching the videos before reading this complex and difficult text. If you have time to go deeper, join me in reading this nearly 400 page text (I got a library copy of the Walter Kaufmann translation). You could read the 1924 translation by Thomas Common for free on-line at archive.org (https://archive.org/details/completenietasch10nietuoft) (web, pdf, EPUB, Kindle, Daisy, text, and DjVu formats are available). You could listen to the Thomas Common translation via Librivox (http://librivox.org/the-joyful-wisdom-by-friedrich-nietzsche) (freely downloadable mp3s). You might also review the Wikipedia page on "The Gay Science" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gay_Science).

This is the fourth in a series inspired by an accessible, exquisite, free on-line course The Art of Living ( http://humanexperience.stanford.edu/artofliving ), three Stanford professors discuss five great works to explore how philosophy and literature can help us practice the art of living. The lecturers are Kenneth Taylor, Joshua Landy, and R. Lanier Anderson and the works are Plato's "Symposium", Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Kierkegaard's "Fear and Trembling", Nietzsche's "The Gay Science", and Toni Morrison's "Song of Solomon". The course video lectures will guide our exploration of "The Art of Living" in a multidimensional way. For an overview of our topic, please watch the 50 minute video Introduction to The Art of Living (http://vimeo.com/20383042).

These are links to the other meetups in The Art of Living series:

1. The Art of Living: Love and Reason in Plato's Symposium (https://www.meetup.com/thinkingsociety/events/131748342/)

2. The Art of Living: What Can We Learn From Shakespeare's Hamlet? (https://www.meetup.com/thinkingsociety/events/131748462/)

3. The Art of Living: The Paradoxes of Faith and Existence (https://www.meetup.com/thinkingsociety/events/131748542/)

4. The Art of Living: The Roles of Art and Science

5. The Art of Living: The Roles of Self and Community (https://www.meetup.com/thinkingsociety/events/131748702/)

6. The Art of Living: Engaging the Project of our Lives (https://www.meetup.com/thinkingsociety/events/131748772/)