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Single Idea 24136

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

Full Idea

I conduct the great test: who will endure the thought of eternal recurrence?

Gist of Idea

Who can endure the thought of eternal recurrence?

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1884-85 [1884], 25[290])

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Fragments from 1884-85 (v 15)', ed/tr. Loeb,P.S./Tinsley,D.F. [Stanford 2022], p.74


A Reaction

He sometimes talks as if eternal recurrence were a cosmic fact, but we should definitely ignore that. This idea captures his idea best, I think - that we should try to live with the prospect of recurrence always in mind. A type of existentialism.


The 11 ideas with the same theme [implications of having to live the same life over and over]:

Life is a repetition when what has been now becomes [Kierkegaard]
The great person engages wholly with life, and is happy to endlessly relive the life they created [Nietzsche]
Eternal recurrence is the highest attainable affirmation [Nietzsche]
See our present lives as eternal! Religions see it as fleeting, and aim at some different life [Nietzsche]
The eternal return of wastefulness is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
Who can endure the thought of eternal recurrence? [Nietzsche]
If you want one experience repeated, you must want all of them [Nietzsche]
Imagine if before each of your actions you had to accept repeating the action over and over again [Nietzsche]
Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
Reliving life countless times - this gives the value back to life which religion took away [Nietzsche]