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Baubo, Truth, and Joyful Philology in Nietzsche's Die fröhliche Wissenschaft
Author(s) -
Tevebring Frederika
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the german quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.11
H-Index - 10
eISSN - 1756-1183
pISSN - 0016-8831
DOI - 10.1111/gequ.12145
Subject(s) - philology , philosophy , german , assertion , art history , literature , art , sociology , linguistics , feminism , gender studies , computer science , programming language
Towards the end of the introduction to the second edition of Die fröhliche Wissenschaft , Nietzsche suggests, “Vielleicht ist die Wahrheit ein Weib, das Gründe hat, ihre Gründe nicht sehen zu lassen? Vielleicht ist ihr Name, griechisch zu reden, Baubo?” German intellectual history had traditionally depicted truth as a veiled goddess. Nietzsche's assertion that the mythical Baubo, known for exposing herself to the goddess Demeter, could lend her name to truth is curious. By replacing the solemn goddess of truth with the joking Baubo, Nietzsche parodies conventional science's earnest uncovering of facts. In particular, he is targeting his own field: philology, the field that has given itself the task of uncovering and explaining precisely such ancient names as Baubo. This article unravels Nietzsche's associations around the name Baubo and argues that he makes this name the matrix for the new relationship to truth and knowledge introduced by Die fröhliche Wissenschaft .