Journal of the History of Philosophy

Nietzsche defines “freedom of spirit” in terms of truthfulness. I point out that the concept of truthfulness assumes different forms in Nietzsche. I argue that the truthfulness characteristic of the free spirit is not “intellectual honesty,” as if often supposed, but a particular form of the “passion for knowledge” he identifies as “curiosity.” I conclude by showing that Nietzsche’s distinctive analysis of curiosity reveals it to be a life-affirming stance that escapes his notorious critique of truthfulness as an objectionable form of “asceticism,” as well as the traditional charge that it leads to a form of intellectual dissoluteness.