Nietzsche's eternal recurrence of the same : the effect of logic abridgement, contradictions and inconsistencies

I will argue that the doctrine of eternal recurrence of the same no better interprets cosmology than pink elephants interpret zoology. I will also argue that the eternal-reiurn-of-the-same doctrine as what Magnus calls "existential imperative" is without possibility of application and thus futile. To facilitate those arguments, the validity of the doctrine of the eternal recurrence of the same will be tested under distinct rubrics. Although each rubric will stand alone, one per chapter, as an evaluation of some specific aspect of eternal recurrence, the rubric sequence has been selected to accommodate the identification of what I shall be calling logic abridgments. The conclusions to be extracted from each rubric are grouped under the heading CONCLUSION and appear immediately following rubric ten. Then, or if, at the end of a rubric a reader is inclined to wonder which rubric or topic is next, and why, the answer can be found at the top of the following page. The question is usually answered in the very first sentence, but always answered in the first paragraph. The first rubric has been placed in order by chronological entitlement in that it deals with the evolution of the idea of eternal recurrence from the time of the ancient Greeks to Nietzsche's August, 1881 inspiration. This much-recommended technique is also known as starting at the beginning. Rubric 1 also deals with 20th. Century philosophers' assessments of the relationship between Nietzsche and ancient Greek thought. The only experience of E-R, Zarathustra's mountain vision, is second only because it sets the scene alluded to in following rubrics. The third rubric explores .ii?.ih T jc,i -I'w Nietzsche's evaluation of rationality so that his thought processes will be understood appropriately. The actual mechanism of E-R is tested in rubric four...The scientific proof Nietzsche assembled in support of E-R is assessed by contemporary philosophers in rubric five. E-R's function as an ethical imperative is debated in rubrics six and seven.. .The extent to which E-R fulfills its purpose in overcoming nihilism is measured against the comfort assured by major world religions in rubric eight. Whether E-R also serves as a redemption for revenge is questioned in rubric nine. Rubric ten assures that E-R refers to return of the identically same and not merely the similar. In addition to assemblage and evaluation of all ten rubrics, at the end of each rubric a brief recapitulation of its principal points concludes the chapter. In this essay I will assess the theoretical conditions under which the doctrine cannot be applicable and will show what contradictions and inconsistencies follow if the doctrine is taken to be operable. Harold Alderman in his book Nietzsche's Gift wrote, the "doctrine of eternal recurrence gives us a problem not in Platonic cosmology, but in Socratic selfreflection." ^ I will illustrate that the recurrence doctrine's cosmogony is unworkable and that if it were workable, it would negate self-reflection on the grounds that selfreflection cannot find its cause in eternal recurrence of the same. Thus, when the cosmology is shown to be impossible, any expected ensuing results or benefits will be rendered also impossible. The so-called "heaviest burden" will be exposed as complex, engrossing "what if speculations deserving no linkings to reality. To identify ^Alderman p. 84 abridgments of logic, contradictions and inconsistencies in Nietzsche's doctrine of eternal recurrence of the same, I. will examine the subject under the following schedule. In Chapter 1 the ancient origins of recurrence theories will be introduced. ..This chapter is intended to establish the boundaries within which the subsequent chapters, except Chapter 10, will be confined. Chapter 2, Zarathustra's vision of E-R, assesses the sections of Thus Spoke Zarathustra in which the phenomenon of recurrence of the same is reported. ..Nihilism as a psychological difficulty is introduced in this rubric, but that subject will be studied in detail in Chapter 8. In Chapter 2 the symbols of eternal recurrence of the same will be considered. Whether the recurrence image should be of a closed ring or as a coil will be of significance in many sections of my essay. I will argue that neither symbolic configuration can accommodate Nietzsche's supposed intention. Chapter 3 defends the description of E-R given by Zarathustra. Chapter 4, the cosmological mechanics of E-R, speculates on the seriousness with which Nietzsche might have intended the doctrine of eternal recurrence to be taken. My essay reports, and then assesses, the argument of those who suppose the doctrine to have been merely exploratory musings by Nietzsche on cosmological hypotheses...The cosmogony of E-R is examined. In Chapter 5, cosmological proofs tested, the proofs for Nietzsche's doctrine of return of the same are evaluated. This chapter features the position taken by Martin ' Heidegger. My essay suggests that while Heidegger's argument that recurrence of the same is a genuine cosmic agenda is admirable, it is not at all persuasive. Chapter 6, E-R is an ethical imperative, is in essence the reporting of a debate between two scholars regarding the possibility of an imperative in the doctrine of recurrence. Their debate polarizes the arguments I intend to develop. Chapter 7, does E-R of the same preclude alteration of attitudes, is a continuation of the debate presented in Chapter 6 with the focus shifted to the psychological from the cosmological aspects of eternal recurrence of the same. Chapter 8, Can E-R Overcome Nihilism?, is divided into two parts. In the first, nihilism as it applies to Nietzsche's theory is discussed. ..In part 2, the broader consequences, sources and definitions of nihilism are outlined. My essay argues that Nietzsche's doctrine is more nihilistic than are the world's major religions. Chapter 9, Is E-R a redemption for revenge?, examines the suggestion extracted from Thus Spoke Zarathustra that the doctrine of eternal recurrence is intended, among other purposes, as a redemption for mankind from the destructiveness of revenge. Chapter 10, E-R of the similar refuted, analyses a position that an element of chance can influence the doctrine of recurrence. This view appears to allow, not for recurrence of the same, but recurrence of the similar. A summary will recount briefly the various significant logic abridgments, contradictions, and inconsistencies associated with Nietzsche's doctrine of eternal recurrence of the same. In the 'conclusion' section of my essay my own opinions and observations will be assembled from the body of the essay.

Memory mixed with desire : a preliminary study of philosophy and literature in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Milan Kundera

Memory Mixed with Desire: A preliminary study of Philosophy and Literature in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Milan Kundera Robert Spinelli Brock University, Department of Philosophy This thesis studies intertextuality in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Milan Kundera through the primary themes of memory and forgetting. The thesis starts with two introductory chapters that delineate memory according to Nietzsche and Kundera respectively. From here, I move into a discussion of Nietzsche's Ubermensch as an example of the type of forgetting that Nietzsche sees as a cure for the overabundance of memory that has led to Christian morality. Next, I explore the Kunderan concept of kitsch as the polar opposite of what Nietzsche has sought in his philosophy, finishing the chapter by tying the two thinkers together in a Kunderan critique of Nietzsche. The thesis ends with a chapter devoted to the Eternal Return beginning with an exegesis of Nietzsche's idea and ending with a similar exegesis of Kundera's treatment of this thought. What I suggest in this chapter is that the Eternal Return might itself be a form of kitsch even in its attempt to revalue existence.

On affirmation and becoming : a Deleuzian reading of Nietzsche's critique of nihilism

The main thrust of this thesis is the re-exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche's "critique of nihilism" through the lenses of Gilles Deleuze. A Deleuzian reading of Nietzsche is motivated by a post-deconstrnctive style of interpretation, inasmuch as Deleuze goes beyond, or in between, henneneutics and deconstrnction. Deleuze's post-deconstrnctive reading of Nietzsche is, however, only secondary to the main aim of this thesis. The primary thrust of this study is the critique of a way of thinking characterized by Nietzsche as nihilistic. Therefore, it should be noted that this study is not about Deleuze's reading per se; rather, it is an appraisal of Nietzsche's "critique of nihilism" using Deleuze's experimental reading. We will accrue Nietzsche's critique and Deleuze's post-deconstrnctive reading in order to appraise Nietzsche's critique itself. Insofar as we have underscored Deleuze's purported experimentation of Nietzschean themes, this study is also an experiment in itself. Through this experimentation, we will find out whether it is possible to partly gloss Nietzsche's critique of nihilism through Deleuzian phraseology. Far from presenting a mere exposition of Nietzsche's text, we are, rather, re-reading, that is, re-evaluating Nietzsche's critique of nihilism through Deleuze's experimentation. This is our way of thinking with Nietzsche. Nihilism is the central problem upon which Nietzsche's philosophical musings are directed; he deems nihilism as a cultural experience and, as such, a phenomenon to be reckoned with. In our reconstruction of Nietzsche's critique of nihilism, we locate two related elements which constitute the structure of the prescription of a cure, Le., the ethics of affirmation and the ontology of becoming. Appraising Nietzsche's ethics and ontology amounts to clarifying what Deleuze thinks as the movement from the "dogmatic image of thought" to the "new image of thought." Through this new image of thought, Deleuze makes sense of a Nietzschean counterculture which is a perspective that resists traditional or representational metaphysics. Deleuze takes the reversal of Platonism or the transmutation of values to be the point of departure. We have to, according to Deleuze, abandon our old image of the world in order to free ourselves from the obscurantism of foundationalist or essentialist thinking. It is only through the transmutation of values that we can make sense of Nietzsche's ethics of affirmation and ontology of becoming. We have to think of Nietzsche's ethics as an "ethics" and not a moral philosophy, and we have to think of his ontology as 1/ ontology" and not as metaphysics. Through Deleuze, we are able to avoid reading Nietzsche as a moral philosopher and metaphysician. Rather, we are able to read Nietzsche as one espousing an ethical imperative through the thought of the eternal return and one advocating a theory of existence based on an immanent, as opposed to transcendent, image of the world.

Éthéréalisation : amorces d'une contre-histoire

Cette thèse est une enquête épistémologique qui s’interroge sur la persistance de « l’éther » dans le champ de la technologie. De façon générale, le mot « éther » évoque un modèle conceptuel de la physique pré-einsteinienne, celui d’un milieu invisible permettant la propagation de la lumière et des ondes électromagnétiques. Or, ce n’est là qu’une des figures de l’éther. Dans plusieurs mythologies et cosmogonies anciennes, le nom « éther » désignait le feu originel contenu dans les plus hautes régions célestes. Aristote nommait « éther », par exemple, le « cinquième être », ou « cinquième élément ». La chimie a aussi sa propre figure de l’éther où il donne son nom à un composé chimique, le C4H10O, qui a été utilisé comme premier anesthésiant général à la fin du XIXe siècle. L’apparition soutenue dans l’histoire de ces figures disparates de l’éther, qui a priori ne semblent pas entretenir de relation entre elles, est pour nous la marque de la persistance de l’éther. Nous défendons ici l’argument selon lequel cette persistance ne se résume pas à la constance de l’attribution d’un mot ou d’un nom à différents phénomènes dans l’histoire, mais à l’actualisation d’une même signature, éthérogène. À l’invitation d’Agamben et en nous inspirant des travaux de Nietzsche et Foucault sur l’histoire-généalogie et ceux de Derrida sur la déconstruction, notre thèse amorce une enquête historique motivée par un approfondissement d’une telle théorisation de la signature. Pour y parvenir, nous proposons de placer l’éther, ou plutôt la signature-éther, au cœur de différentes enquêtes historiques préoccupées par le problème de la technologie. En abordant sous cet angle des enjeux disparates – la légitimation des savoirs narratifs, la suspension des sens, la pseudoscience et la magie, les révolutions de l’information, l’obsession pour le sans-fil, l’économie du corps, la virtualisation de la communication, etc. –, nous proposons dans cette thèse autant d’amorces pour une histoire autre, une contre-histoire.

Entre júbilo e ruína: a perspectiva trágica de Nietzsche

It is investigating why reason Nietzsche affirms, in 1888, when revises his work (Ecce Homo), that to be exactly with The Birth of Tragedy it will be necessary to forget some things , and, in spite of, insist, in the same writing, in naming himself the first tragic philosopher - that is, the opposite and antipode of a pessimistic philosopher . Nietzsche elaborates in The Birth of Tragedy a theory about tragic starting from the opposition and complementarity among Apollo and Dionysian, rationalism and instinct, and in the refusal of the pessimistic perspective. The objective of the dissertation is to discuss how the theory of tragedy modifies due to the rupture with the inspiring of the first moment of the nietzschian philosophy, Schopenhauer and Wagner - maybe the such things to be forgotten about The Birth of Tragedy - and the implications of this rupture, that transforms the philosophy of Nietzsche in dissident of the metaphysical tradition. Like this, it is noticed that there is more continuity than estrangement in what concerns to the definition of tragic, just announced in 1871. By the sentence of the eternal return to the concept of will of power Nietzsche elaborates a tragic perspective, marked by the Dionysian celebration of the life, also acted through the pessimism dionisiac , defined in Gaya Science's § 370 (1881-2), and of the sentence of the love fate, enunciated in the §276 of the same work; all those concepts, discussed in this research, concentrate, decisively, the acceptance idea and statement of life, or more precisely, the decline of the tragic hero, between joy and ruin

Entre o belo e o feio: das Unheimliche como princípio estético em Freud

O presente trabalho visou estudar as considerações estéticas de Freud contidas no texto “O Estranho” (1919), como tais posicionamentos promovem uma verdadeira descontinuidade no pensamento estético ocidental. Neste sentido, ao nos mostrar como toda produção artística tem no material inconsciente seu principal motor e fonte de inspiração, Freud a insere no rol das demais produções do inconsciente (sonhos, chistes, neurose, etc). No entanto, no contexto de “O Estranho”, Freud passa a ver a arte não mais como uma produção de um aparelho psíquico movido pelo princípio do prazer, pois neste texto Freud antecipa a questão da pulsão de morte e o eterno retorno de materiais recalcados como funcionamento de uma subjetividade regida por um além do princípio do prazer, neste sentido, a morte, enquanto fim último da existência passa a ser a grande tônica das novas pesquisas freudianas, e o belo da arte estaria assim irremediavelmente implicado à angustia e desamparo ocasionados pelo retorno do recalcado. Neste sentido, o unheimlich, enquanto sentimento de assombro e inquietação provocados pela pulsão demoníaca que insiste em presentificar-se, passa a ser encarado por Freud como importante princípio estético.

Para quem não sabe amar, fica esperando alguém, que caiba no seu sonho: uma leitura psicanalítica da obra musical de Cazuza

Este trabalho consistiu em um exercício de interpretação psicanalítica da obra musical de Cazuza. Dividida em três períodos: Barão Vermelho, carreira solo e carreira solo sob o signo da AIDS. Buscou-se uma escuta, na qual o intérprete está implicado na produção de um novo sentido. Desse modo, utilizou-se a proposta metodológica da psicanálise implicada, buscando-se aproximações entre a psicanálise e a arte poética, explorando nesse entrelaçamento, a dimensão do desamparo (Hilflosigkeit), do excesso como soluções que reparam os efeitos da castração, como se se tratasse de um defeito na constituição narcísica e, finalmente, a finitude, que para Cazuza anunciou-se antecipadamente, impondo a ele um novo modo de pensar e lidar com o fim. Levou-se em conta que Freud, em seus textos sobre arte, admite que ela, tal qual os sonhos e chistes, é projeção do inconsciente e que posteriormente a concebe dentro dos limites da “compulsão à repetição” do “eterno retorno do mesmo” como uma subjetividade regida para além do principio do prazer. Por fim, encontra-se que o “Eu Lírico” do poeta aponta para a falta absoluta de solução para condição humana diante de sua fragilidade, para o lugar do vazio da significação do próprio ser e de sua existência.

O trabalho de Sísifo no sertão: uma análise de Vidas Secas

This paper revisits the work Vidas Secas, by Graciliano Ramos, in search of a literary analysis, observing the narrative aspects of time, space and characters, from the myth of Sisyphus's perspective, the existentialist philosophy of Sartre and Camus and theory the eternal return of Nietzsche. With the use of these special lenses, intended to show how this work is able to generate the effect of absurdity in the reader, through a narrative construction that brings out the absolute lack of meaning and purpose of those lives, but still, unlike than one would tend to conclude, builds characters who pass by a mere determinism of the environment and act in the world through freedom possible within all disturbing limitations imposed on them

El retorno eterno

RESUMEN: Se propone un abordaje acerca de la concepción temporal cíclica en arquitectura. La investigación se centra, en principio, en la noción de «Eterno Retorno» desde un punto de vista ontológico asociado a las civilizaciones arcaicas. En seguida, y tiendo por base el diálogo cíclico primitivo por vía de figuras arquetípicas, se estudia ese concepto en arquitectura cuya formulación, aunque en otros términos, remonta a la noción de «tipo» propuesta por Quatremère de Quincy en el siglo XVIII, época en la cual se profundizó el estudio de los orígenes arquitectónicos. Son muchos los casos en los que la evolución y las diferentes apropiaciones de este término no refuerzan la dialéctica platónica propuesta inicialmente por Quatremère en cuanto mediación entre pasado, presente y futuro. Este estudio revisa su entendimiento original encuadrado en la idea de un «Retorno Eterno» y como posibilidad para la práctica contemporánea. RESUME: This study proposes an approach to the idea of a cyclical time in Architecture. Initially the work focuses on the notion of the «Eternal Return» from an ontological point of view connected to the archaic civilizations. Then, based on the primitive cyclic dialogue trough the archetypical figures, it studies about the idea of this concept in Architecture whose formulation, although in other terms, goes back to the notion of «type» proposed by Quatremère Quincy during the eighteenth century, at which time the theories went deep into the study of the architectural fundamentals. The evolution and the different appropriations of this concept not always have enhanced the Platonic dialectic proposed by Quatremère as mediation between past, present and future. This study aims to understand his original meaning framed on the notion of the «Eternal Return» and as a possibility the contemporary practice.

O eterno retorno como paródia e como colagem na filosofia da diferença de Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze hás commented on many philosophers, but his relationship with Nietzsche plays a singular role in his thought: appropriating the concept of the “eternal return” to think the central axis of his thesis, Difference and repetition (1968). Terms “difference” and “repetition” appeared associated to eternal return in his Nietzsche and philosophy (1962). Our dissertation thesis analyzes the presentations of that concept in bothworks. Chapter one presents the style construction and critical, methodological aspects of Nietzschean philosophy, fundamental elements to understand Deleuze’s interpretation. It subsequently analyzes the first presentation of that concept, expressed in the following terms: the aesthetic existence, either innocent or justified from the figure of game. We will see how the image of game implies another concept of chance, that leads Deleuze to think of an affirmative philosophical “type”, capable of creating new values. Chapter two evaluates the existential, “ethical-selective”, “physicalcosmological” character of the concept of eternal return, as much as the difficulties it imposes upon Nietzsche’s interpreter. We present afterwards Deleuzian comprehension of eternal return as a “parody” or a “simulacrum of doctrine”. Chapter three analyzes that interpretive position as a transvaluation of values from a rearrange of perspectives in order to overcome the negative comprehensions of existence. We want to question the way Deleuze builds another image of thought from the concept of eternal return – an image that, by a sort of “colagem” and selective elimination of the negativity, proposes a historiographic work and unfolds a lineage of thinkers of immanence and difference, a detour from the thought of identity, the same and the similar. We want thus to understand Deleuze’s critique of “dogmatic image of thought”.

O eterno retorno como paródia e como colagem na filosofia da diferença de Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze hás commented on many philosophers, but his relationship with Nietzsche plays a singular role in his thought: appropriating the concept of the “eternal return” to think the central axis of his thesis, Difference and repetition (1968). Terms “difference” and “repetition” appeared associated to eternal return in his Nietzsche and philosophy (1962). Our dissertation thesis analyzes the presentations of that concept in bothworks. Chapter one presents the style construction and critical, methodological aspects of Nietzschean philosophy, fundamental elements to understand Deleuze’s interpretation. It subsequently analyzes the first presentation of that concept, expressed in the following terms: the aesthetic existence, either innocent or justified from the figure of game. We will see how the image of game implies another concept of chance, that leads Deleuze to think of an affirmative philosophical “type”, capable of creating new values. Chapter two evaluates the existential, “ethical-selective”, “physicalcosmological” character of the concept of eternal return, as much as the difficulties it imposes upon Nietzsche’s interpreter. We present afterwards Deleuzian comprehension of eternal return as a “parody” or a “simulacrum of doctrine”. Chapter three analyzes that interpretive position as a transvaluation of values from a rearrange of perspectives in order to overcome the negative comprehensions of existence. We want to question the way Deleuze builds another image of thought from the concept of eternal return – an image that, by a sort of “colagem” and selective elimination of the negativity, proposes a historiographic work and unfolds a lineage of thinkers of immanence and difference, a detour from the thought of identity, the same and the similar. We want thus to understand Deleuze’s critique of “dogmatic image of thought”.

Desmitificaciones, historia y símbolos: los héroes impuros (Rosibel Morera)

In this article I analize the novel Los héroes impuros by the Costa Rican authoress Rosibel Morera. The analytical categories used include, from the elimination of absolute historical facts, all the way to the notion of eternal return (Mircea Eliade), processes of idolization, and the various symbols appearing on the text. Examination of these categories shows the characters´ duality because of their universality, and also the worldview and the conception of literature held by Morera.