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Single Idea 20124

[filed under theme 23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 8. Eternal Recurrence ]

Full Idea

"Is this something I want to do countless times?" ....Let us etch the image of eternity onto our own lives! This thought embodies more than all religions, which taught us to disdain life as something ephemeral and to look toward an unspecified other life.

Gist of Idea

Reliving life countless times - this gives the value back to life which religion took away

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Works (refs to 8 vol Colli and Montinari) [1885], 9.496,503), quoted by Rüdiger Safranski - Nietzsche: a philosophical biography 10

Book Ref

Safranski,Rüdiger: 'Nietzsche: a philosophical biography' [Granta 2003], p.231

A Reaction

You can't get away from eternal recurrence being an imaginative trick, to focus value onto our choices. For a while Nietzsche tried to persuade himself that the recurrence actually occurred, but we all know it doesn't.

The 26 ideas from 'Works (refs to 8 vol Colli and Montinari)'

7846 Nietzsche thinks philosophy makes us more profound, but not better [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
20107 How many mediocre thinkers are occupied with influential problems! [Nietzsche]
20352 Nietzsche has a metaphysics, as well as perspectives - the ontology is the perspectives [Nietzsche, by Richardson]
20106 Nietzsche was fascinated by a will that can turn against itself [Nietzsche, by Safranski]
20128 Each person has a fixed constitution, which makes them a particular type of person [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
22503 Nietzsche could only revalue human values for a different species [Nietzsche, by Foot]
8041 The superman is a monstrous oddity, not a serious idea [MacIntyre on Nietzsche]
20135 Nietzsche's higher type of man is much more important than the idealised 'superman' [Nietzsche, by Leiter]
22475 Moral generalisation is wrong, because we should evaluate individual acts [Nietzsche, by Foot]
22476 Nietzsche thought our psychology means there can't be universal human virtues [Nietzsche, by Foot]
7847 Initially nihilism was cosmic, but later Nietzsche saw it as a cultural matter [Nietzsche, by Ansell Pearson]
9782 Nietzsche urges that nihilism be active, and will nothing itself [Nietzsche, by Zizek]
20371 Nietzsche thinks we should join a society, in order to criticise, heal and renew it [Nietzsche, by Richardson]
20104 Nietzsche tried to lead a thought-provoking life [Safranski on Nietzsche]
20353 The 'will to power' is basically applied to drives and forces, not to people [Nietzsche, by Richardson]
20108 Every culture loses its identity and power if it lacks a major myth [Nietzsche]
20367 Individual development is more important than the state, but a community is necessary [Nietzsche]
20105 Storms are wonderful expressions of free powers! [Nietzsche]
20113 Friendly chats undermine my philosophy; wanting to be right at the expense of love is folly [Nietzsche]
22501 Nietzsche classified actions by the nature of the agent, not the nature of the act [Nietzsche, by Foot]
22500 Nietzsche failed to see that moral actions can be voluntary without free will [Foot on Nietzsche]
20102 Flight from boredom leads to art [Nietzsche]
20124 Reliving life countless times - this gives the value back to life which religion took away [Nietzsche]
20123 First see nature as non-human, then fit ourselves into this view of nature [Nietzsche]
20379 Reason is just another organic drive, developing late, and fighting for equality [Nietzsche]
20376 We begin with concepts of kinds, from individuals; but that is not the essence of individuals [Nietzsche]