Contents

Nietzsche's three main formulations of the eternal recurrence:

1. The Gay Science, section 341

2. Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Of the Vision and the Riddle

3. The Will to Power, fragment 1066

Main kinds of readings given by other philosophers:

1. As a cosmological thesis

2. As a hypothetical/thought experiment

3. As a regulative idea

Idiosyncratic readings by other philosophers

1. Alexander Nehamas

2. Gilles Deleuze

Enduring criticisms

1. Georg Simmel's criticism of the cosmological reading

2. Simmel's (and others) criticism of the hypothetical reading

3. Karl Löwith's criticism of the hypothetical reading

Discussion

1. A criticism of the regulative reading

2. A response to Simmel's criticism of the hypothetical reading

3. A response to Löwith's criticism of the hypothetical reading

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

This site is dedicated to Friedrich Nietzsche's idea of the eternal recurrence. It presents Nietzsche’s central descriptions of that idea and also what other philosophers have made of it. The latter includes the most influential interpretations of the eternal recurrence as well as its most enduring problems. In addition there is some discussion of the interpretations and criticisms.

As a taster of the importance of the eternal recurrence, at least to Nietzsche, I have reproduced below Nietzsche's description of that idea in his book Ecce Homo. In the quotation he is telling the story of one of his most famous books, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which is essentially concerned with the eternal recurrence.

I shall now tell the story of Zarathustra. The basic conception of the work, the idea of the eternal recurrence, the highest formula of affirmation that can possibly be attained — belongs to the August of the year 1881: it was jotted down on a piece of paper with the inscription: '6,000 feet beyond man and time'. I was that day walking through the woods beside the lake of Silvaplana; I stopped beside a mighty pyramidal block of stone which reared itself up not far from Surlei. Then this idea came to me. (Ecce Homo, p.69)

This quotation suggests that the eternal recurrence maybe of importance to us because it describes the eternal recurrence as "the highest formula of affirmation that can possibly be attained". Indeed, Nietzsche believed that the eternal recurrence was the key to overcoming the nihilism, resentment and meaninglessness of our age. That is, he believed that the idea could transform us such that we could affirm lives as meaningful.