The Gay Science

Eneas Sweetland (E. S.) Dallas (1828–1879) was a journalist who worked for The Times among other publications and whose interest in psychology and love of poetry led to his writing the two-volume – though he originally intended four – The Gay Science, published in 1866.

The work takes its title from an expression used by Provençal troubadours to describe the art of composing poetry, and the volumes are concerned with the unclear and often shifting boundaries between art and science and whether they can be reconciled.

Volume 2 considers this question in relation to pleasure: what it is, the historical and philosophical understanding of this emotion and sensation, whether it should be pursued, and its relation to artistic production.

The remainder of the book looks at the issue of the ethics of art and the nature of artistic enterprise, as well as the changing stance of the viewer.