The Gay Science is usually placed within Nietzsche’s middle period, during which his work extolled the merits of science, skepticism, and intellectual discipline as routes to mental freedom. The affirmation of the Provençal tradition (invoked through the book’s title) is also one of a joyful “yea-saying” to life.In The Gay Science, Nietzsche experiments with the notion of power but does not advance any systematic theory.