“Heilige Grausamkeit” (“Holy Cruelty”): A “Perspective” on Nietzsche and Infanticide

In his Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (The Gay Science), Nietzsche writes an aphorism (Book 2, No. 73) titled “Heilige Grausamkeit” (“Holy Cruelty”). There is no obvious scholarly engagement in the literature with this particular aphorism to elucidate its meaning. Clearly, the very juxtaposition of the two concepts—holiness and cruelty—is problematic, even as the content of the aphorism is interpretively problematic for the counsel the holy man gives to a father seeking advice as to what to do with his deformed newborn, i.e., to kill the child. At issue here is the moral rationality involved in Nietzsche’s perspective in this particular instance, but also in relation to the perspective of Christian moral rationality of which Nietzsche is critical. The exposition provided here analyzes the text and contributes an interpretation as an important element to understanding Nietzsche’s “ethics” as it relates to contemporary discourse on euthanasia qua mercy killing.