The reality of Eternal Recurrence

Thesis

This thesis presents a novel account of Nietzsche’s idea of Eternal Recurrence of the Same (ER). I argue that ER should be understood neither as theoretical cosmology, nor hypothetical thought-experiment, but as metaphysical interpretation of reality.

The thesis is composed of four chapters. In chapter 1 I argue that certain motivations underlying the consensus views on how to interpret ER are unfounded assumptions that need not be made. I discuss these motivations and their discursive consequences with a view to opening the way for metaphysical, non-theoretical understandings of ER. Thus, I dispel possibilities that ER is not literal by removing the assumptions I believe ground them.

In chapter 2 I examine Nietzsche’s attitude to science in order to show that his criticism for all theoretical science as an adherent of the ascetic ideal leads to the conclusion that ER could not be a theoretical account of the universe. Following from this, I argue that the unpublished “proofs” for ER and zeitatomenlehre note are not supporting a physical theory but are alternative experimental interpretations of reality set within a scientific paradigm.

In chapter 3 I move to an outline of Nietzsche’s metaphysical and interpretative way of understanding reality, specifically in relation to his appropriation of Heraclitan ideology to describe the world metaphysically, and use of Dionysos through a particular interpretative lens. I show that the Heraclitan and Dionysian are linked and are linked in relation to ER, pointing towards the sense in which I argue one ought to understand ER: as a metaphysical interpretation of reality, graspable only through the Dionysian perspective.

In chapter 4 I turn to a close exegesis of the key passages on ER to show that they evidence a metaphysical ER, set within Dionysian interpretation of reality. I argue that close analysis is required to draw out the way Nietzsche expresses the Dionysian interpretative nature of ER in vividly depicting the experience of coming to realise it.

Authors: Smyth, E

• Type of award: BPhil
• Level of award: Bachelors
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Eternal Recurrence; Reality; Metaphysical; Interpretation; Origin of science; Nietzsche; Exegesis
• Subjects: Existential philosophy; Philosophy; History of Philosophy; Nietzsche