Among other things, the German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was known for an outrageous mustache that frightened away potential soulmates. He also said a lot of outrageous things, which caused him to be shunned by much of society at the time.

Before publishing Thus Spoke Zarathustra, his best known work in which he proclaimed “God is dead,” he wrote a book titled The Joyful Wisdom (originally: The Gay Science).

In that book, he posed a question that may be even more intere...