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Chapter 4 - Zarathustra’s Response to Schopenhauer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2022

By
Christopher Janaway
Edited by
Keith Ansell-Pearson  and
Paul S. Loeb
Keith Ansell-Pearson
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
Paul S. Loeb
Affiliation:
University of Puget Sound, Washington
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Summary

The problem, according to Janaway, is that the unchangeable past appears to overwhelm the future in such a way that it is impossible for us to create anything new. This is the meaning of that key moment in TSZ where Zarathustra is devastated by the pessimistic teaching that all is empty, all is the same, all has been (ZII: “The Soothsayer”). If he cannot creatively transform the present-day human into his envisioned future superhuman, Zarathustra loses his reason for living. But then he awakens his dormant thought of eternal recurrence and realizes that he can in fact create the past from the perspective of the present moment. Given the thought of eternal recurrence, the past is no longer closed and hence the future remains open too.

Keywords

Schopenhauerpessimismsuperhumaneternal recurrencepastfuture
Type
Chapter
Information
Nietzsche's ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra'
A Critical Guide
 , pp. 83 - 103
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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