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Ideas for 'Theaetetus', 'Vindication of the Rights of Women' and 'Unpublished Notebooks 1884-85'

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2 ideas

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 8. Eternal Recurrence
Who can endure the thought of eternal recurrence? [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: I conduct the great test: who will endure the thought of eternal recurrence?
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1884-85 [1884], 25[290])
     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.
If you want one experience repeated, you must want all of them [Nietzsche]
     Full Idea: Whoever wants to have a single experience again must want all of them again.
     From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Unpublished Notebooks 1884-85 [1884], 29[054])
     A reaction: Nehemas says this is the main factual commitment of eternal recurrence (and certainly not that global recurrence actually occurs). It might be expressed in terms of possible worlds. We yearn for recurrence, then dread it?