Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same

Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same
Author: Karl Löwith
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1997
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780520065192

For Lowith, the centerpiece of Nietzsche's thought is the doctrine of eternal recurrence, a notion which Lowith, unlike Heidegger, deems incompatible with the will to power.

Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same

Nietzsche's Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same
Author: Karl Lowith
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 587
Release: 2023-12-22
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0520353633

This long overdue English translation of Karl Löwith's magisterial study is a major event in Nietzsche scholarship in the Anglo-American intellectual world. Its initial publication was extraordinary in itself—a dissident interpretation, written by a Jew, appearing in National Socialist Germany in 1935. Since then, Löwith's book has continued to gain recognition as one of the key texts in the German Nietzsche reception, as well as a remarkable effort to reclaim the philosopher's work from political misappropriation. For Löwith, the centerpiece of Nietzsche's thought is the doctrine of eternal recurrence, a notion which Löwith, unlike Heidegger, deems incompatible with the will to power. His careful examination of Nietzsche's cosmological theory of the infinite repetition of a finite number of states of the world suggests the paradoxical consequences this theory implies for human freedom. How is it possible to will the eternal recurrence of each moment of one's life, if both this decision and the states of affairs governed by it appear to be predestined? Löwith's book, one of the most important, if seldom acknowledged, sources for recent Anglophone Nietzsche studies, remains a central text for all concerned with understanding the philosopher's work.

Nietzsche's Life Sentence

Nietzsche's Life Sentence
Author: Lawrence Hatab
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2013-05-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1135456313

In this book Lawrence Hatab provides an accessible and provocative exploration of one of the best-known and still most puzzling aspects of Nietzsche's thought: eternal recurrence, the claim that life endlessly repeats itself identically in every detail. Hatab argues that eternal recurrence can and should be read literally, in just the way Nietzsche described it in the texts. The book offers a readable treatment of most of the core topics in Nietzsche's philosophy, all discussed in the light of the consummating effect of eternal recurrence. Although Nietzsche called eternal recurrence his most fundamental idea, most interpreters have found it problematic or needful of redescription in other terms. For this reason Hatab's book is an important and challenging contribution to Nietzsche scholarship.

Nietzsche and the Horror of Existence

Nietzsche and the Horror of Existence
Author: Philip J. Kain
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2009
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780739126943

Nietzsche believed in the horror of existence: a world filled with meaningless sufferingA suffering for no reason at all. He also believed in eternal recurrence, the view that that our lives will repeat infinitely, and that in each life every detail will be exactly the same. Furthermore, it was not enough for Nietzsche that eternal recurrence simply be acceptedA he demanded that it be loved. Thus the philosopher who introduces eternal recurrence is the very same philosopher who also believes in the horror of existence. In this groundbreaking study, Philip Kain develops an insightful account of Nietzsche's strange and paradoxical view that a life of pain and suffering is perhaps the only life it really makes sense to want to live again.

Nietzsche's Ethical Theory

Nietzsche's Ethical Theory
Author: Craig Dove
Publisher: Continuum
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2008-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

A new approach to a major figure in Western Philosophy.

Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence

Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence
Author: Bevis E. McNeil
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2020-10-27
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030552969

This book examines the cogency and value of Nietzsche’s idea of eternal recurrence, as an antidote to the nihilism resulting from the catastrophic event of ‘the death of God’. Its significance to Nietzsche’s philosophy as a whole (when presented either as an imaginative thought experiment, a cosmological hypothesis, or a poetic metaphor) is analysed, alongside the manifold criticisms the idea has attracted. In this original reading of eternal recurrence, McNeil explores the strength of metaphorical meaning contained within Heraclitean and Stoic cosmologies, revealing their influence on Nietzsche’s own cosmology, along with their holistic approach to life which Nietzsche endorsed. Furthermore, an extensive critique of Heidegger’s interpretation of eternal recurrence is given. McNeil argues that Heidegger ignores not only the life-affirming Dionysian aspects of the concept, but also the Heraclitean sense of play evident in the cosmology, and the importance of this for developing a positive, celebratory attitude towards our lives and creative projects.

The Flame of Eternity

The Flame of Eternity
Author: Krzysztof Michalski
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2013-12-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0691162190

The Flame of Eternity provides a reexamination and new interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy and the central role that the concepts of eternity and time, as he understood them, played in it. According to Krzysztof Michalski, Nietzsche's reflections on human life are inextricably linked to time, which in turn cannot be conceived of without eternity. Eternity is a measure of time, but also, Michalski argues, something Nietzsche viewed first and foremost as a physiological concept having to do with the body. The body ages and decays, involving us in a confrontation with our eventual death. It is in relation to this brute fact that we come to understand eternity and the finitude of time. Nietzsche argues that humanity has long regarded the impermanence of our life as an illness in need of curing. It is this "pathology" that Nietzsche called nihilism. Arguing that this insight lies at the core of Nietzsche's philosophy as a whole, Michalski seeks to explain and reinterpret Nietzsche's thought in light of it. Michalski maintains that many of Nietzsche's main ideas--including his views on love, morality (beyond good and evil), the will to power, overcoming, the suprahuman (or the overman, as it is infamously referred to), the Death of God, and the myth of the eternal return--take on new meaning and significance when viewed through the prism of eternity.

Zarathustra's Secret

Zarathustra's Secret
Author: Joachim Köhler
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780300092783

In this groundbreaking biography, the author seeks to understand Nietzsche's philosophy through a reconstruction of his inner life. "Briskly written . . . almost a philosophical detective story."--"Volksblatt." 43 illustrations.

Birth and Death of Meaning

Birth and Death of Meaning
Author: Ernest Becker
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 287
Release: 2010-05-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1439118426

Uses the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, sociology and psychiatry to explain what makes people act the way they do.