The Affirmation of Eros: Passion and Eternity in Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Gay Science

This thesis investigates the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's relationship with three ancient philosophical traditions: Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Platonism. It argues that in his work The Gay Science he radically breaks from these traditions, by developing an ethics grounded in the love of life. The thesis accomplishes a richer understanding of Nietzsche’s middle-period ethics and of his relationship to antiquity