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Eternal Recurrence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Robin Small
Robin Small*
Affiliation:
Monash University
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Extract

The doctrine of eternal recurrence, the claim that everytning that occurs does so not only once but infinitely many times, figures in the writings of Nietzsche in several forms, and it can be understood in different ways. Here I shall show that one of these approaches allows us to see the doctrine as a philosophical theory about the nature of reality: that is, as an ontological doctrine. The interpretation is worth exploring because it allows us not only to see what Nietzsche's arguments really are, but also to bring to light problems and objections that go unnoticed in most accounts of the idea.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , December 1983 , pp. 585 - 605
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1983

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References

1 See e.g. KGW V/2, 451. Here and throughout ‘KGW’ refers to the Kritische Gesamtausgabe: Werke, ed. Colli, G. and Montinari, M. (Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter 1973Google Scholar —)

2 Twilight of the Idols, ‘“Reason” in Philosophy', Sect. 2. In quoting Nietzsche I have used the translations of Kaufmann, Walter included in The Portable Nietzsche, ed. and trans. Kaufmann, W. (New York: Viking Press 1954)Google Scholar andThe Will to Power, trans. Kaufmann, W. and Hollingdale, R.J. (New York: Vintage Books 1968)Google Scholar. In a few cases slight modifications have been made.

3 KGW Vll/1, 209

4 Plato, Cratylus, 402.Google Scholar See also Vlastos, G. ‘On Heraclitus', American Journal of Philology, 76 (1955) 337-68CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 338-44.

5 Thus Spake Zarathustra, ‘On the Blessed Isles'

6 Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, trans. Payne, E.F.J. (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1974) 283Google Scholar (Sect. 143)

7 See The Use and Abuse of History, trans. Collins, A. (Indianapolis — New York: Bobbs-Merrill 1957)Google Scholar 5ff (Sect. 1).

8 Thus Spake Zarathustra, ‘On Old and New Tablets', Sect. 3

9 KGW VII/3, 286

10 KGW VII/2, 223 (The Will to Power, Sect. 1060)

11 KGW VIII/2, 276 (The Will to Power, Sect. 708)

12 KGW VIII/2, 201-02 (The Will to Power, Sect. 639)

13 Thus Spake Zarathustra, ‘The Convalescent,’ Sect. 2

14 Thus Spake Zarathustra, ‘On Old and New Tablets,’ Sect. 2

15 KGW VIII/1, 320 (The Will to Power, Sect. 617)

16 Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Creeks, trans. Cowan, M. (South Bend, Ind.: Gateway Editions 1962) 54Google Scholar (Sect. 5)

17 The Dawn of Day, trans. Kennedy, J.M. (New York: Russell and Russell 1964) 257Google Scholar (Sect. 281)

18 Here my interpretation differs from that of Joan Stambaugh, for whom (if I understand her correctly) ‘It was’ arises out of the will to revenge; see Stambaugh, Untersuchungen zum Problem der Zeit bei Nietzsche (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff 1959) 72Google Scholar. However the account offered here seems to me to be more adequate.

19 Thus Spake Zarathustra, ‘The Drunken Song'

20 Thus Spake Zarathustra, ‘On Involuntary Bliss'

21 See e.g. Magnus, B. ‘Nietzsche's Eternalistic Counter-Myth', Review of Metaphysics, 26 (1973) 604-16Google Scholar.

22 KGW VII/1, 165

23 Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks, 63 (Sect. 7)

24 KGW VIII/3, 51 (The Will to Power, Sect. 635)

25 KGW VII/3, 393

26 KGW VIII/I, 218 (The Will to Power, Sect. 55)

27 Earlier versions of this paper were read at different places, and I am grateful for the helpful comments of Lynne Broughton, John Llewelyn, Leslie Stevenson, and others.