marxist_god
25th December 2007, 03:57
According to The Eternal Return theory, this moment has happened before, thousands of time, this exact moment has happened before, but the world tries to fix its errors and mistakes:
Eternal Recurrence
Matt McDonald
Introduction
The Eternal Return is one of Nietzsche's most important thoughts. Nietzsche was not the first to write on the subject, but he did expand the idea of recurrence greatly. He first encountered the idea in his readings of Heinrich Heine, whom Nietzsche admired. Here is a selection from Heine's writing:
For time is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies are finite.... Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations that have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again.... And thus it will happen one day that a man will be born again, just like me, and a woman will be born, just like Mary (Citation from Kaufmann's Translator's Introduction to The Gay Science, p. 16)
The Eternal Return
The Eternal Return is for Nietzsche the most weighty thought. It is a difficult thought, hard to grasp and conceptualize. In Nietzsche's mind the Eternal Return was a horrifying thought, almost paralyzing. Here is a selection from The Gay Science:
The greatest weight. -- What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your live will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence--even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!' Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change, you as you are or perhaps crush you. (GS 341)
Also in The Will To Power Nietzsche writes "Duration 'in vain' without end or aim is the most paralyzing idea...." (WP 55)
The Eternal Return is basically the theory that there is infinite time and a finite number of events, and eventually the events will recur again and again infinitely. Consider the world as a super-complex chess game. If games of chess are played one after another forever, eventually a game will be repeated since there is only a finite number of possible games, it is the same with the world; eventually events will recur in the same order. The world is an eternal process of coming to be and passing away. The process, however, has no beginning or end. Eventually every combination of matter and energy will be realized and repeated and infinite number of times. Here is a selection from The Will To Power:
If the world may be thought of as a certain definite quantity of force and as a certain definite number of centers of force--and every other representation remains indefinite and therefore useless--it follows that, in the great dice game of existence, it must pass through a calculable number of combinations. In infinite time, every possible combination would at some time or another be realized; more: it would be realized an infinite number of times. And since between every combination and its next recurrence all other possible combinations would have to take place, and each of these combinations conditions the entire sequence of combinations in the same series, a circular movement of absolutely identical series is thus demonstrated: the world as a circular movement that has already repeated itself infinitely often and plays its game in infinitum. (WP 1066)
Anti-Mechanism
Nietzche believed that there is no final state of the universe; that the world is in a constant state of flux, always changing and becoming: "If the world had a goal it must have been reached." (WP 1063)
There is no permanence, no duration, no "once-and-for-all": "That a state of equilibrium is never reached proves that it is not possible." (WP 1064) Not only does the world never reach a final state, it avoids a final state. The Eternal Return is not a mechanistic theory. Nietzsche writes, "The sole fundamental fact, however, is that it [the world] does not aim at a final state; and every philosophy and scientific hypothesis (e.g. mechanistic theory) which necessitates such a final state is refuted by this fundamental fact." (WP 708) In The Gay Science Nietzsche writes, "Let us even beware of believing that the universe is a machine: it is certainly not constructed for one purpose, and calling it a ėmachine' does it far too much honor." (GS 109)
From the mechanistic we derive the concepts of "necessity" and "law". Of these two concepts Nietzsche writes, "the former introduces a false constraint into the world, the latter a false freedom." Things do not obey laws or rules because first of all, there are no things: "they are fictions invented by us", and second, "there is no law: every power draws its ultimate consequence at every moment."(WP 634) Science has observed certain sequences of phenomena in nature and has attempted to formulate so-called "laws". These calculations are not laws; they are merely "power relationships between two or more forces."(WP 631)
Becoming and Being
Nietzsche holds that the world is a world of becoming. There is no being. A world of being is merely a world of appearances. All concepts of being, unity, finality, and endpoint are illusions. There is no truth in being. Belief in a world of being is just a consequence of religion and philosophy. The only reality is becoming. If there were being, it would necessitate a final state, which would have been reached. Also, if becoming could pass into being, then becoming would become devalued. Nietzsche writes, "More strictly: one must admit nothing that has being--because then becoming would lose its value and actually appear meaningless and superfluous." (WP 708) The value of becoming remains constant in that it has no value. Becoming can not be evaluated because there is no thing or being to measure it against.
Here are three quotes from Nietzsche on becoming:
Becoming does not aim at a final state, does not flow into "being."
Becoming is not a merely apparent state; perhaps the world of beings is mere appearance.
Becoming is of equivalent value every moment; the sum of its values always remains the same; in other words, it has no value at all, for anything against which to measure it, and in relation to which the word "value" would have meaning, is lacking. The total value of the world cannot be evaluated; consequently philosophical pessimism belongs among comical things. (WP 708)
Time and the Eternal Return
Linear time has for some time been the traditional ordinary conception of time. This concept of time is a result of Aristotle and Judeo-Christian teaching. Most traditional theories of time share the idea that everything is "in time". To be "in time" means to be within an irreversible process in which things are brought into and taken out of existence. The Christian concept of time stresses "directed" time with a beginning, middle, and an end, and distinct past, present, and future. The Nietzschian theory of time differs in that for Nietzsche "there is no end." There is no finality of time; time is infinite. There is also no beginning to time. Nietzsche's time is like a cyclic time, non-linear, bent round in to a circle.
Time is not "duration" with and "in vain", rather the moment is the prime "constituent" of time. Each moment arises and perishes. The perishing of a moment allows the next moment to arise. It is important to understand that for the moment "there is no end". The perishing of a moment is not a final state. Moments do not end in time because they allow other moments to arise. "The moment is immortal in which I produce return. For the sake of this moment I bear return." (Nietzsche's Notebooks)
Eternal Return As Cyclical Structure of Process
The world is in a constant state of flux like a great body of water; chaos. All that we see, the materialistic and mechanistic, supervenes on this vast sea of fluctuation. For Nietzsche this sea is composed of quanta of energy, force centers. Science continues to break matter down into smaller components from atoms, protons, particles, to quarks, etc. One can conceptually break matter down farther and farther until there is no substance left, just a chaos of pure energy.
All order originates from chaos, structure from the structureless, logic from illogic. "How did logic come into existence in man's head? Certainly out of illogic, whose realm must have been immense." (GS 111) This is an abstract statement, but it is believable! Logic is based on relationships of equality, but in reality "nothing is really equal." (GS 111)
The cyclical structure of process is born from chaos. It is the Will to Power that causes the cyclical structure of process to emerge. This cycle of passing from high point to low point and back can be found in everything. Each day cycles with the rising and setting of the sun. Each year cycles with the passing of the seasons. All living things follow the same cycle throughout the course of their lives. Daily as humans we wake up each morning, consume food and water, become tired, sleep, and then wake up again to repeat the same process. In the scale of a lifetime beginning with the high point living things are born. They grow, develop and mature into adulthood. Then, at low point, they begin to deteriorate and eventually perish.
The Eternal Return is the cyclical structure of process in the greatest sense. It like, everything else follows a structured cycle. This is comparable to a kind of "big bang", but is entirely different in that although it is a process, it is not mechanistic. We begin with the high point in which substance originates from the chaos. Particles form atoms, which bond to form molecules. Formation of the organic leads to the growth and evolution of the various species. Then at the low point corruption occurs. Then all "living things" eventually perish and the world begins to disorganize itself. Possibly gravity causes the world to collapse in on itself, converting all substance back into a chaos of energy. Then the process repeats eternally, eventually realizing all possible histories of the world and all possible states of "becoming".
Problems with Physicalistic Interpretations of Eternal Recurrence
There is a problem with the above interpretation of the Eternal Return in that is only a physical analogy. Consequently, it is also a highly mechanistic interpretation. Nietzsche's doctrine of recurrence rests on the assumption of infinite time and finite quanta of force. In a universe with finite space this would lead to recurrence. Just like in the chess game analogy, there is infinite time, a finite number of pieces, and 64 squares of space. Eventually the same chess game will be played again, and if the world were like this the same world would occur again. Now, consider a universe with infinite space, infinite time, and finite quanta of force. It would then be possible for the universe to remain in a constant state of flux without recurrence. The universe might just keep expanding for eternity.
I believe the doctrine of recurrence goes beyond the physical and mechanistic sense. The universe might be composed of parallel worlds in which every possible world becomes actualized, not just one "true world". Contrary to Leibniz' theory of striving possibilities, an "absolute NO!", in which only the single best of all possible worlds becomes actual, Nietzche's doctrine of absolute affirmation is the "absolute YES!" to all possibilities. Absolute affirmation means that all possible events are actual, and no impossible combinations of events become actual. In other words every possible world is actual right now! This is quite a frightening thought to bear in my mind.
Means for Enduring the Eternal Return
In order to endure this horrifying thought of Eternal Return Nietzsche says we must gain freedom from morality. There must be a revaluation of all values. "To endure the idea of the recurrence one needs: freedom from morality; new means against the fact of pain (pain conceived as a tool, as the father of pleasure; there is no cumulative consciousness of displeasure); the enjoyment of all kinds of uncertainty, experimentalism, as a counterweight to this extreme fatalism; abolition of the concept of necessity; abolition of the 'will'; abolition of 'knowledge-in-itself.'" (WP 1060)
Nietzsche's world is a "Dionysian world of the eternally self-creating, the eternally self-destroying, this mystery world of the twofold voluptuous delight, my "beyond good and evil," without goal, unless the joy of the circle is itself a goal." (WP 1067)
I leave you with a question: Do you desire recurrence eternally once more and more?
Nietzsche Net Table of Contents
Eternal Recurrence
Matt McDonald
Introduction
The Eternal Return is one of Nietzsche's most important thoughts. Nietzsche was not the first to write on the subject, but he did expand the idea of recurrence greatly. He first encountered the idea in his readings of Heinrich Heine, whom Nietzsche admired. Here is a selection from Heine's writing:
For time is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies are finite.... Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations that have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again.... And thus it will happen one day that a man will be born again, just like me, and a woman will be born, just like Mary (Citation from Kaufmann's Translator's Introduction to The Gay Science, p. 16)
The Eternal Return
The Eternal Return is for Nietzsche the most weighty thought. It is a difficult thought, hard to grasp and conceptualize. In Nietzsche's mind the Eternal Return was a horrifying thought, almost paralyzing. Here is a selection from The Gay Science:
The greatest weight. -- What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your live will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence--even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!' Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change, you as you are or perhaps crush you. (GS 341)
Also in The Will To Power Nietzsche writes "Duration 'in vain' without end or aim is the most paralyzing idea...." (WP 55)
The Eternal Return is basically the theory that there is infinite time and a finite number of events, and eventually the events will recur again and again infinitely. Consider the world as a super-complex chess game. If games of chess are played one after another forever, eventually a game will be repeated since there is only a finite number of possible games, it is the same with the world; eventually events will recur in the same order. The world is an eternal process of coming to be and passing away. The process, however, has no beginning or end. Eventually every combination of matter and energy will be realized and repeated and infinite number of times. Here is a selection from The Will To Power:
If the world may be thought of as a certain definite quantity of force and as a certain definite number of centers of force--and every other representation remains indefinite and therefore useless--it follows that, in the great dice game of existence, it must pass through a calculable number of combinations. In infinite time, every possible combination would at some time or another be realized; more: it would be realized an infinite number of times. And since between every combination and its next recurrence all other possible combinations would have to take place, and each of these combinations conditions the entire sequence of combinations in the same series, a circular movement of absolutely identical series is thus demonstrated: the world as a circular movement that has already repeated itself infinitely often and plays its game in infinitum. (WP 1066)
Anti-Mechanism
Nietzche believed that there is no final state of the universe; that the world is in a constant state of flux, always changing and becoming: "If the world had a goal it must have been reached." (WP 1063)
There is no permanence, no duration, no "once-and-for-all": "That a state of equilibrium is never reached proves that it is not possible." (WP 1064) Not only does the world never reach a final state, it avoids a final state. The Eternal Return is not a mechanistic theory. Nietzsche writes, "The sole fundamental fact, however, is that it [the world] does not aim at a final state; and every philosophy and scientific hypothesis (e.g. mechanistic theory) which necessitates such a final state is refuted by this fundamental fact." (WP 708) In The Gay Science Nietzsche writes, "Let us even beware of believing that the universe is a machine: it is certainly not constructed for one purpose, and calling it a ėmachine' does it far too much honor." (GS 109)
From the mechanistic we derive the concepts of "necessity" and "law". Of these two concepts Nietzsche writes, "the former introduces a false constraint into the world, the latter a false freedom." Things do not obey laws or rules because first of all, there are no things: "they are fictions invented by us", and second, "there is no law: every power draws its ultimate consequence at every moment."(WP 634) Science has observed certain sequences of phenomena in nature and has attempted to formulate so-called "laws". These calculations are not laws; they are merely "power relationships between two or more forces."(WP 631)
Becoming and Being
Nietzsche holds that the world is a world of becoming. There is no being. A world of being is merely a world of appearances. All concepts of being, unity, finality, and endpoint are illusions. There is no truth in being. Belief in a world of being is just a consequence of religion and philosophy. The only reality is becoming. If there were being, it would necessitate a final state, which would have been reached. Also, if becoming could pass into being, then becoming would become devalued. Nietzsche writes, "More strictly: one must admit nothing that has being--because then becoming would lose its value and actually appear meaningless and superfluous." (WP 708) The value of becoming remains constant in that it has no value. Becoming can not be evaluated because there is no thing or being to measure it against.
Here are three quotes from Nietzsche on becoming:
Becoming does not aim at a final state, does not flow into "being."
Becoming is not a merely apparent state; perhaps the world of beings is mere appearance.
Becoming is of equivalent value every moment; the sum of its values always remains the same; in other words, it has no value at all, for anything against which to measure it, and in relation to which the word "value" would have meaning, is lacking. The total value of the world cannot be evaluated; consequently philosophical pessimism belongs among comical things. (WP 708)
Time and the Eternal Return
Linear time has for some time been the traditional ordinary conception of time. This concept of time is a result of Aristotle and Judeo-Christian teaching. Most traditional theories of time share the idea that everything is "in time". To be "in time" means to be within an irreversible process in which things are brought into and taken out of existence. The Christian concept of time stresses "directed" time with a beginning, middle, and an end, and distinct past, present, and future. The Nietzschian theory of time differs in that for Nietzsche "there is no end." There is no finality of time; time is infinite. There is also no beginning to time. Nietzsche's time is like a cyclic time, non-linear, bent round in to a circle.
Time is not "duration" with and "in vain", rather the moment is the prime "constituent" of time. Each moment arises and perishes. The perishing of a moment allows the next moment to arise. It is important to understand that for the moment "there is no end". The perishing of a moment is not a final state. Moments do not end in time because they allow other moments to arise. "The moment is immortal in which I produce return. For the sake of this moment I bear return." (Nietzsche's Notebooks)
Eternal Return As Cyclical Structure of Process
The world is in a constant state of flux like a great body of water; chaos. All that we see, the materialistic and mechanistic, supervenes on this vast sea of fluctuation. For Nietzsche this sea is composed of quanta of energy, force centers. Science continues to break matter down into smaller components from atoms, protons, particles, to quarks, etc. One can conceptually break matter down farther and farther until there is no substance left, just a chaos of pure energy.
All order originates from chaos, structure from the structureless, logic from illogic. "How did logic come into existence in man's head? Certainly out of illogic, whose realm must have been immense." (GS 111) This is an abstract statement, but it is believable! Logic is based on relationships of equality, but in reality "nothing is really equal." (GS 111)
The cyclical structure of process is born from chaos. It is the Will to Power that causes the cyclical structure of process to emerge. This cycle of passing from high point to low point and back can be found in everything. Each day cycles with the rising and setting of the sun. Each year cycles with the passing of the seasons. All living things follow the same cycle throughout the course of their lives. Daily as humans we wake up each morning, consume food and water, become tired, sleep, and then wake up again to repeat the same process. In the scale of a lifetime beginning with the high point living things are born. They grow, develop and mature into adulthood. Then, at low point, they begin to deteriorate and eventually perish.
The Eternal Return is the cyclical structure of process in the greatest sense. It like, everything else follows a structured cycle. This is comparable to a kind of "big bang", but is entirely different in that although it is a process, it is not mechanistic. We begin with the high point in which substance originates from the chaos. Particles form atoms, which bond to form molecules. Formation of the organic leads to the growth and evolution of the various species. Then at the low point corruption occurs. Then all "living things" eventually perish and the world begins to disorganize itself. Possibly gravity causes the world to collapse in on itself, converting all substance back into a chaos of energy. Then the process repeats eternally, eventually realizing all possible histories of the world and all possible states of "becoming".
Problems with Physicalistic Interpretations of Eternal Recurrence
There is a problem with the above interpretation of the Eternal Return in that is only a physical analogy. Consequently, it is also a highly mechanistic interpretation. Nietzsche's doctrine of recurrence rests on the assumption of infinite time and finite quanta of force. In a universe with finite space this would lead to recurrence. Just like in the chess game analogy, there is infinite time, a finite number of pieces, and 64 squares of space. Eventually the same chess game will be played again, and if the world were like this the same world would occur again. Now, consider a universe with infinite space, infinite time, and finite quanta of force. It would then be possible for the universe to remain in a constant state of flux without recurrence. The universe might just keep expanding for eternity.
I believe the doctrine of recurrence goes beyond the physical and mechanistic sense. The universe might be composed of parallel worlds in which every possible world becomes actualized, not just one "true world". Contrary to Leibniz' theory of striving possibilities, an "absolute NO!", in which only the single best of all possible worlds becomes actual, Nietzche's doctrine of absolute affirmation is the "absolute YES!" to all possibilities. Absolute affirmation means that all possible events are actual, and no impossible combinations of events become actual. In other words every possible world is actual right now! This is quite a frightening thought to bear in my mind.
Means for Enduring the Eternal Return
In order to endure this horrifying thought of Eternal Return Nietzsche says we must gain freedom from morality. There must be a revaluation of all values. "To endure the idea of the recurrence one needs: freedom from morality; new means against the fact of pain (pain conceived as a tool, as the father of pleasure; there is no cumulative consciousness of displeasure); the enjoyment of all kinds of uncertainty, experimentalism, as a counterweight to this extreme fatalism; abolition of the concept of necessity; abolition of the 'will'; abolition of 'knowledge-in-itself.'" (WP 1060)
Nietzsche's world is a "Dionysian world of the eternally self-creating, the eternally self-destroying, this mystery world of the twofold voluptuous delight, my "beyond good and evil," without goal, unless the joy of the circle is itself a goal." (WP 1067)
I leave you with a question: Do you desire recurrence eternally once more and more?
Nietzsche Net Table of Contents