Nietzsche's Theory of Eternal Recurrence
How What You Live Through Once You Will Live Eternally
Friedrich Nietzsche (Oct 15, 1844 -- August 25, 1900), the great German philosopher, having posited that god is dead, was left with the problem of then explaining the meaning of life. Why do we do what we do? What is the purpose of our existence? Though he dealt with this question in a number of different works, he asks us to answer the question for ourselves in his Theory of Eternal Recurrence posed in the work The Gay Science (1882).
The Theory of Eternal Recurrence
Nietzche writes, "What if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you, `This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence - even this spider and this moon-light between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!' Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him, `You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine!'"
Writing on the theory, Peg Tittle says, "Nietzche actually considered it to be "the most scientific of all hypotheses" (The Will To Power, note 55) because it follows from the denial of a god: 1. if there is no god, there is no creation or beginning, and, therefore, time is infinite; 2. the number of things and arrangements of things is finite; therefore, 3. events must repeat themselves, infinitely - hence, eternal recurrence...Furthermore, he says, `The question in each and every thing, "Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?"' will either crush you or lead you to transform your life - what if one were to live life as if it were to recur eternally"(What if, 8).
Instead of answering the question, What is the meaning of life, Nietzche asks one to pose the question to oneself, What is the meaning of MY life? How differently would one live if one did, in fact, face each day as though one would have to live it over inummerable times? What different choices would one make? Would one really agree to sentence oneself to an eternal life of drudgery and boredom and disappointment when, by making other choices, one could live a life of real meaning and excitement and vitality? The Theory of Eternal Recurrence, which Nietzche himself thought people would be horrified at the prospect of, provides one with a moment's pause in life in which to reflect on exactly how one is spending one's time on earth and how one values that time. The meaning of life then becomes living life itself to the fullest, experiencing all it has to offer; whether one then gets to live it over again eternally isn't really the point -- the point is to live it now.
Sources:
The Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzche, parable in section 341, 1882
What If, Peg Tittle, 2005
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzche, 1883/1885
Without music, life would be a mistake - Nietzche
|
What do you think about this article?
Latest Articles