In Nietzsche’s Enlightenment: The Free-Spirit Trilogy of the Middle Period, Paul Franco offers a comprehensive and insightful presentation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s works from his so-called middle period, a phase often overlooked or misunderstood in the broader sweep of Nietzschean scholarship. This middle period consists of three central works—Human, All Too Human, Daybreak, and The Gay Science—that represent a critical departure from Nietzsche’s earlier romanticism and provide the groundwork for his later, more prophetic writings. Franco argues persuasively that, contrary to conventional interpretations that cast these works as mere transitional pieces or as inconsistent with Nietzsche’s more famous, later works, they are in fact integral to understanding the philosopher’s intellectual development.
Franco begins by addressing the seeming paradox within Nietzsche’s middle period: the philosopher’s embrace of Enlightenment values, particularly reason and science, juxtaposed against the passionate excesses for which he is often known. Nietzsche himself described these works as a cohesive trilogy with a shared goal—to erect a new image of the free spirit—signaling a decisive break from the mysticism and artistic escapism of his early works. Franco emphasizes that Nietzsche’s ideal of the free spirit during this period is not one characterized by Dionysian frenzy or romantic idealism, but rather by rationality, moderation, and intellectual honesty. These qualities, Franco argues, are crucial for understanding how Nietzsche’s middle works set the stage for his later philosophy.
Central to Franco’s analysis is the argument that Nietzsche, in his middle period, reveals a more measured and scientific approach to philosophy. Human, All Too Human (1878) marks the first clear departure from his earlier works, particularly The Birth of Tragedy, where Nietzsche had emphasized art and myth as essential vehicles for cultural renewal. By contrast, in Human, All Too Human, Nietzsche turns decisively toward reason and science as the means to address the problem of modern culture’s fragmentation. The focus of this work is a radical critique of metaphysical and romantic assumptions, most notably those inherited from Schopenhauer and Wagner. Nietzsche rejects the metaphysical world, as well as the romantic idealism that sought to reconcile the fractured modern world through art and myth, instead offering a vision of culture grounded in scientific knowledge.
In Daybreak (1881), Nietzsche further refines his critique of morality, turning his attention to the utilitarian and Darwinian accounts of human behavior, particularly those advanced by his friend Paul Rée and the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Franco illustrates how Nietzsche, while still engaged with these thinkers, shifts his perspective on morality, questioning not only its origins but also its moralizing, life-denying effects. The middle period’s philosophy of knowledge, Franco argues, is thus deeply connected to Nietzsche’s growing dissatisfaction with the ascetic ideal and the moral constraints it imposes on life. Daybreak is a key moment in Nietzsche’s philosophical maturation, as it marks a shift from his earlier reflections on morality and culture toward a more nuanced understanding of human drives, ethics, and freedom.
The Gay Science (1882), the third work in the free-spirit trilogy, represents the culmination of Nietzsche’s middle period. Here, Franco contends, Nietzsche’s reflections on science and knowledge deepen into a more joyful and life-affirming approach. The term “gay science” itself is central to this work’s ethos, as it symbolizes Nietzsche’s attempt to reconcile the disenchanted worldview of science with the exuberance and creativity traditionally associated with art. Franco suggests that The Gay Science encapsulates Nietzsche’s evolving perspective on the relationship between knowledge, art, and life, leading to his exploration of the eternal recurrence and the figure of the Übermensch, which will become more prominent in his later writings.
Franco emphasizes that while Nietzsche’s commitment to reason and intellectual honesty remains a central theme throughout his middle period, it evolves in response to the limitations he perceives in his earlier philosophical commitments. The tension between the rationality of the free spirit and the passionate excesses of the later Nietzsche—who emphasizes the will to power, the revaluation of values, and the figure of the Übermensch—becomes one of the key philosophical questions that Franco addresses. He contends that Nietzsche’s later works do not represent a rejection of the Enlightenment spirit found in the middle works, but rather an evolution that grapples with the challenges and limitations inherent in that very spirit.
Franco’s book provides a comprehensive, systematic reading of Nietzsche’s middle period, making clear the continuity between the early romantic Nietzsche and the later more radical figure. The middle works, he argues, show Nietzsche wrestling with the intellectual and cultural crises of his time—especially the decline of religious and metaphysical worldviews—and attempting to forge a path toward a new kind of cultural and intellectual vitality based on knowledge and science. Nietzsche’s struggle against the romantic tendencies of his early philosophy, and his eventual embrace of a more intellectual, scientific outlook, thus forms the backdrop for the grander philosophical gestures that follow in his later works.
What is especially compelling in Franco’s analysis is his contention that the rational, scientific Nietzsche of the middle period is not merely an intermediary stage, nor a passing phase, but a crucial development in Nietzsche’s thought that continues to influence his later philosophy. Franco also addresses a critical gap in Nietzsche scholarship by demonstrating that the middle works do not abandon Nietzsche’s earlier philosophical concerns, such as the problem of culture and the search for cultural renewal, but rather refashion them in light of his new philosophical commitments.
Franco’s Nietzsche’s Enlightenment is therefore an essential contribution to the understanding of Nietzsche’s middle period, offering a careful, thoughtful reexamination of the philosopher’s evolution. By providing a more detailed account of the free-spirit trilogy, Franco uncovers the intellectual and philosophical depth of these often neglected works, ultimately showing how they represent not only a pivotal moment in Nietzsche’s own intellectual development but also a critical intervention in the broader philosophical and cultural debates of the late 19th century. Through this exploration, Franco invites readers to reconsider Nietzsche’s relationship to the Enlightenment and the ongoing relevance of his philosophy in confronting the intellectual challenges of the modern world.
Simon Gros 
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