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Nietzsche - The Key Ideas: Eternal recurrence

by Dr Roy Jackson

In The Gay Science (1882), Nietzsche presents a ‘what if’ image. He asks what if a demon were to creep up to you one night when you are all alone and feeling lonely and were to say to you that the life you have lived and continue to live will be the same life you will live again and again for infinity. This life will be exactly the same; no additions and no omissions, every pain, every joy, every small and great event. If this were the case, would you cry out in despair over such a prospect, or would you think it to be the most wonderful outlook ever? The same proposition is presented in Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885). In both cases, the idea of the eternal recurrence seems to be living the same life; every detail again and again. This is not really meant to be an explanation of how the world actually operates, but more of a thought-experiment, an ‘existential imperative’, to determine how you would react if you did have to live this life over and over again. If you can still affirm life then you have passed one of the ‘tests’ for the Superman.

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