Nietzsche’s Cosmology of Eternal Recurrence

Abstract

This chapter will look in more detail at the reasons why Nietzsche furnished a cosmological model of eternal recurrence, and how it helps to support and focus our attention on the thought of eternal recurrence and take it more seriously, as that thought that will enable us to existentially overcome the complacency of our nihilistic and indifferent disposition. It also plays the important role of presenting a model of time which is in opposition to a Christian moral linear timeline, which only devalues our lives and cultivates a bad and guilty conscience within us. This chapter will also review contemporary criticisms of Nietzsche’s cosmology of eternal recurrence, such as the doctrine’s incoherence, that there is no evidence for its reality, as well as the charges that it is fatalistic and that it generates indifference. A fruitful way to understand and critically engage with Nietzsche’s idea of eternal recurrence is by comparing and contrasting it with the Heraclitean and Stoic views, and therefore the second half of this chapter will look at the important influence of Heraclitus’ and the Stoics’ cosmologies on Nietzsche’s cosmology, and the Stoics’ more holistic approach to life which he hoped to resurrect and foster in us.