Letting Nietzsche inside schools? Educational potential and an acknowledgement of the optimism of his philosophy

The aim of this article is to identify the educational interest of Nietzsche’s fundamental philosophical principles. To this end, Nietzsche’s work “The Gay Science” and corresponding references from other fragments of his corpus have been aggregated for the needs of this goal. An analysis of the book’s major propositions indicates an epistemological approach to educational matters, based on knowledge’s refutability and its validation through experimentation. Other parts of this work, stress out the incompatibility of Nietzsche’s philosophy with a democratic education. His philosophical concepts of social order and destiny’s accomplishment are presented in favour of this claim. Finally, the most unique propositions in The Gay Science are unveiled and their potential incorporation into the educational process is proposed. In particular, the values of appearance and fallacy emerge, illuminating the optimistic side of his philosophy. From an educational perspective, these values recommend limiting excess rationalism in classrooms and maintaining students’ learning interest by focusing on their emotional needs. © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.