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Single Idea 6842

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

Full Idea

Nietzsche is overwhelmingly concerned with how to respond to nihilism, and he offers the concept of eternal return; the Overman is one who can affirm over and over that one is equal to meaninglessness, without turning to despair or idols.

Clarification

The Overman (übermensch) is a person above conventional morality

Gist of Idea

Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism

Source

report of Friedrich Nietzsche (The Gay (Joyful) Science [1882], §342) by Simon Critchley - Interview with Baggini and Stangroom p.192

Book Ref

Baggini,J/Stangroom,J: 'New British Philosophy' [Routledge 2002], p.192

A Reaction

I agree with Critchley that this is not much of a recipe for ordinary people's lives, and I don't even find it very congenial for a tough-minded philosopher. We should make the best of the cards we are dealt, however feeble they may appear.

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

22093 Life is a repetition when what has been now becomes [Kierkegaard]
20137 The great person engages wholly with life, and is happy to endlessly relive the life they created [Nietzsche]
20144 Eternal recurrence is the highest attainable affirmation [Nietzsche]
24088 See our present lives as eternal! Religions see it as fleeting, and aim at some different life [Nietzsche]
24119 The eternal return of wastefulness is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
24136 Who can endure the thought of eternal recurrence? [Nietzsche]
24154 If you want one experience repeated, you must want all of them [Nietzsche]
2936 Imagine if before each of your actions you had to accept repeating the action over and over again [Nietzsche]
6842 Nietzsche says facing up to the eternal return of meaninglessness is the response to nihilism [Nietzsche, by Critchley]
7172 Existence without meaning or goal or end, eternally recurring, is a terrible thought [Nietzsche]
20124 Reliving life countless times - this gives the value back to life which religion took away [Nietzsche]