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I Feel Like I Lived the Same Life Over and Over Again

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Concept that the universe and all existence is perpetually recurring

"Eternal recurrence" redirects here. For other uses, run into Eternal Recurrence.

Eternal render (German: Ewige Wiederkunft; also known as eternal recurrence) is a concept that the universe and all being and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur an infinite number of times across space time or space.

Classical artifact [edit]

In aboriginal Hellenic republic, the concept of eternal return was nigh prominently associated with Stoicism, the school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium, although there are hints that the theory may in fact take originated with Pythagoras. The ascension of Christianity brought an end to classical theories of eternal return, which were incompatible with Christian notions of gratuitous volition and salvation.

Pythagoreanism [edit]

According to Porphyry, it was one of the teachings of Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC) that "after certain specified periods, the same events occur once again" and that "nothing was entirely new".[1] Eudemus of Rhodes also references this Pythagorean doctrine in his commentary on Aristotle's Physics. In a fragment preserved past Simplicius, Eudemus writes:[2]

One might raise the problem whether the same fourth dimension recurs, as some say, or not. "The aforementioned" has many senses: the same in form seems to occur equally do bound and wintertime and the other seasons and periods; similarly the same changes occur in form, for the sun performs its solstices and equinoxes and its other journeys. Just if someone were to believe the Pythagoreans that numerically the same things recur, and then I also will romance, belongings my staff, while y'all sit down there, and everything else will exist the same, and it is plausible to say that the time will be the same.

Stoicism [edit]

The Stoics, possibly inspired past the Pythagoreans,[3] incorporated the theory of eternal recurrence into their natural philosophy. Co-ordinate to Stoic physics, the universe is periodically destroyed in an immense conflagration (ekpyrosis), and and so experiences a rebirth (palingenesis). These cycles go along for eternity, and the same events are exactly repeated in every wheel.[4] The Stoics may have found back up for this doctrine in the concept of the Great Year,[5] the oldest known expression of which is constitute in Plato's Timaeus. Plato hypothesised that one complete wheel of time would exist fulfilled when the lord's day, moon and planets all completed their various circuits and returned to their original positions.[vi]

Sources differ every bit to whether the Stoics believed that the contents of each new universe would be ane and the same with those of the previous universe, or only so similar as to be indistinguishable.[7] The former point of view was attributed to the Stoic Chrysippus (c. 279 – c. 206 BC) by Alexander of Aphrodisias, who wrote:[8]

They hold that later the conflagration all the same things come to exist again in the globe numerically, then that even the aforementioned peculiarly qualified private as before exists and comes to be over again in that world, every bit Chrysippus says in his books On the World.

On the other hand, Origen (c. 185 – c. 253 AD) characterises the Stoics as claiming that the contents of each cycle will non be identical, merely just duplicate:[nine]

To avoid supposing that Socrates will alive once again, they say that it will exist some ane indistinguishable from Socrates, who will marry some one indistinguishable from Xanthippe, and will be accused by men duplicate from Anytus and Meletus.

Origen as well records a heterodox version of the doctrine, noting that some Stoics advise that "there is a slight and very minute difference between one period and the events in the period before information technology".[10] This was probably not a widely-held belief, as information technology represents a deprival of the deterministic viewpoint which stands at the centre of Stoic philosophy.[11]

Christian response [edit]

Christian authors attacked the doctrine of eternal recurrence on various grounds. Origen argued that the theory was incompatible with free will (although he did allow the possibility of diverse and non-identical cycles).[12] Augustine of Hippo (354–430 Advertising) objected to the fact that conservancy was not possible in the Stoic scheme, arguing that fifty-fifty if a temporary happiness was attained, a soul could not be truly blessed if it was doomed to return again to misery.[13]

Augustine also mentions "certain philosophers" who cite Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 every bit prove of eternal render: "What is that which hath been? Information technology is that which shall be. And what is that which is done? It is that which shall exist done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Who can speak and say, See, this is new? It hath been already of onetime time, which was earlier united states." Augustine denies that this has reference to the recurrence of specific people, objects, and events, instead interpreting the passage in a more general sense. In back up of his argument, he appeals to scriptural passages such as Romans vi:nine, which affirms that Christ "beingness raised from the dead dieth no more than".[13]

Friedrich Nietzsche [edit]

Eternal recurrence is one of the primal concepts of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900).[14] While the idea itself is not original to Nietzsche, his unique response to information technology gave new life to the theory, and speculation as to the correct interpretation of Nietzsche'south doctrine continues to this day.

Precursors [edit]

The discovery of the laws of thermodynamics in the 19th century restarted the debate amid scientists and philosophers about the ultimate fate of the universe, which brought in its railroad train many questions about the nature of fourth dimension.[15] Eduard von Hartmann argued that the universe'due south final state would be identical to the country in which it had begun; Eugen Dühring rejected this idea, claiming that it carried with it the necessary result that the universe would begin once again, and that the same forms would echo themselves eternally, a doctrine which Dühring viewed as dangerously pessimistic.[16] Johann Gustav Vogt [de], on the other manus, argued in favour of a cyclical organisation, additionally positing the spatial co-existence of an space number of identical worlds.[17] Louis Auguste Blanqui similarly claimed that in an infinite universe, every possible combination of forms must echo itself eternally across both time and infinite.[18]

Nietzsche's formulation [edit]

Nietzsche wrote that the concept of eternal render first occurred to him at Lake Silvaplana, "beside a huge rock that towered aloft like a pyramid".[nineteen]

Nietzsche may accept fatigued upon a number of sources in developing his own formulation of the theory. He had studied Pythagorean and Stoic philosophy,[20] was familiar with the works of contemporary philosophers such as Dühring and Vogt,[21] and may accept encountered references to Blanqui in a book by Friedrich Albert Lange.[22] He was also a fan of the author Heinrich Heine, i of whose books contains a passage discussing the theory of eternal return.[20] Nevertheless, Nietzsche claimed that the doctrine, every bit it appears in his ain works, struck him i day equally a sudden revelation, while walking beside Lake Silvaplana.[19]

The first published presentation of Nietzsche's version of the theory appears in The Gay Scientific discipline, section 341, where it is proposed to the reader equally a idea experiment:

What if some mean solar day or night a demon were to steal after you lot into your loneliest loneliness, and say to yous, "This life every bit you now live it and have lived it, you volition have to live once again and innumerable times more; and at that place will be nothing new in information technology, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or not bad in your life will take to return to you, all in the aforementioned succession and sequence ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you lot once experienced a tremendous moment when you lot would have answered him: "You are a god and never take I heard anything more divine."[23]

Nietzsche expands upon this concept in the philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra, subsequently writing that eternal return was "the fundamental idea of the piece of work".[nineteen] In this novel, the titular Zarathustra is initially struck with horror at the idea that all things must recur eternally; ultimately, however, he overcomes his aversion to eternal return and embraces it equally his most fervent desire. In the penultimate affiliate of the work ("The Drunken Song"), Zarathustra declares: "All things are entangled, ensnared, enamored; if you ever wanted one thing twice, if you lot ever said, 'Yous please me, happiness! Abide, moment!' then you wanted all dorsum ... For all joy wants—eternity."[24]

Estimation [edit]

Martin Heidegger points out that Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence in The Gay Science presents this concept equally a hypothetical question rather than postulating it every bit a fact. According to Heidegger, the significant signal is the burden imposed by the question of eternal recurrence, regardless of whether or not such a matter could mayhap exist truthful.[25] The concept of eternal recurrence appears similar to Nietzsche's concept of amor fati, which Nietzsche describes: "My formula for greatness in a homo is amor fati: that i wants nil to be different, not forward, non backward, not in all eternity. Not merely to conduct what is necessary, withal less conceal information technology […] but beloved it."[26] [27]

On the other hand, Nietzsche'south posthumously published notebooks comprise an attempt at a logical proof of eternal render, which is oftentimes adduced in support of the claim that Nietzsche believed in the theory as a real possibility.[27] The proof is based upon the premise that the universe is infinite in duration, but contains a finite quantity of energy. This existence the case, all matter in the universe must pass through a finite number of combinations, and each series of combinations must eventually echo in the same order, thereby creating "a circular motility of absolutely identical series".[28] However, scholars such as Neil Sinhababu and Kuong Un Teng accept suggested that the reason this material remained unpublished was because Nietzsche himself was unconvinced that his argument would concord upward to scrutiny.[27] [note 1]

A third possibility is that Nietzsche was attempting to create a new ethical standard by which people should guess their own behaviour.[30] In one of his unpublished notes, Nietzsche writes: "The question which g wilt have to reply before every deed that thou doest: 'is this such a deed as I am prepared to perform an incalculable number of times?' is the best ballast."[31] Taken in this sense, the doctrine has been seen as comparable to the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant.[32] Again, however, the objection is raised that no such upstanding imperative appears in any of Nietzsche's published writings,[xxx] and this estimation is therefore rejected by most modern scholars.[27]

Deleuzeian Estimation [edit]

Philosopher Gilles Deleuze in his book Nietzsche and Philosophy interprets the Eternal Return non as the reiteration of all forces of becoming, only but the agile forces which are in plough defined past their creativity; stating only such active forces will eternally return while reactive forces will non. This interpretation has been criticized by some Nietzsche scholars.[33]

P. D. Ouspensky [edit]

Russian esotericist P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) believed in the literal truth of eternal recurrence. Equally a child, he had been decumbent to bright sensations of déjà vu,[34] and when he encountered the theory of eternal render in the writings of Nietzsche, it occurred to him that this was a possible caption for his experiences.[35] He later explored the thought in his semi-autobiographical novel, Strange Life of Ivan Osokin.

In this story, Ivan Osokin implores a magician to send him back to his childhood and requite him the take chances to alive his life over again. The magician obliges, but warns Ivan that he volition be unable to correct any of his mistakes. This turns out to be the case; although Ivan e'er knows in accelerate what the outcome of his actions will exist, he is unable to proceed himself from repeating those actions. Having re-lived his life up to the point of his chat with the magician, Ivan asks in despair whether at that place is any manner of irresolute the past. The wizard answers that he must first change himself; if he works on improving his grapheme, he may have a chance of making ameliorate decisions side by side time around.

The earliest version of the novel, still, did non include the magician,[36] and ended on "a totally pessimistic note".[37] The revolution in Ouspensky's thoughts on recurrence – the thought that change is possible – took place after he became a disciple of the mystic George Gurdjieff, who taught that a person could achieve a higher land of consciousness through a arrangement of strict self-discipline. When Ouspensky asked about eternal recurrence, Gurdjieff told him:[38]

This idea of repetition ... is non the total and absolute truth, but it is the nearest possible approximation of the truth ... And if you understand why I practise non speak of this, you will exist still nearer to information technology. What is the use of a human being knowing about recurrence if he is not conscious of it and if he himself does not change? ... Knowledge about the repetition of lives will add nothing for a homo ... if he does non strive to change himself in society to escape this repetition. Simply if he changes something essential in himself, that is, if he attains something, this cannot be lost.

Ouspensky incorporated this idea into his after writings. In A New Model of the Universe, he argued against Nietzsche'southward proof of the mathematical necessity of eternal repetition, challenge that a big plenty quantity of matter would be capable of an space number of possible combinations. According to Ouspensky, anybody is reborn again into the same life at the moment of their death, and many people will indeed continue to live the exact aforementioned lives for eternity, but it is also possible to break the cycle and enter into a new plane of beingness.[39]

Science and mathematics [edit]

The Poincaré recurrence theorem states that certain dynamical systems, such equally particles of gas in a sealed container, will return infinitely oft to a state arbitrarily close to their original country.[twoscore] [41] The theorem, first advanced past Henri Poincaré in 1890, remains influential, and is today the basis of ergodic theory.[42] Attempts have been fabricated to evidence or disprove the possibility of Poincaré recurrence in a arrangement the size of a galaxy or a universe.[40] [42]

See likewise [edit]

  • Fractals
  • Endless knot
  • Eureka: A Prose Poem – Lengthy non-fiction work past American author Edgar Allan Poe
  • Celebrated recurrence – Repetition of similar events in history
  • Mandala – Spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism
  • Möbius strip – Non-orientable surface with one border
  • Ouroboros – Symbolic serpent with its tail in its mouth
  • Cycle of fourth dimension – Religious and philosophical concept of cyclical, repeating epochs or ages

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ One rebuttal of Nietzsche'south theory, put frontward by his gimmicky Georg Simmel, is summarised past Walter Kaufmann equally follows: "Even if at that place were exceedingly few things in a finite space in an infinite time, they would not have to repeat in the aforementioned configurations. Suppose in that location were three wheels of equal size, rotating on the aforementioned axis, one point marked on the circumference of each wheel, and these three points lined up in ane direct line. If the second bicycle rotated twice as fast as the outset, and if the speed of the third bike was 1/π of the speed of the first, the initial line-up would never recur."[29]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Porphyry, Life of Pythagoras (§19)". Translated past Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. 1920. Hosted at the Tertullian Project.
  2. ^ Simplicius: On Aristotle's Physics four.ane-v, 10-14 . Translated by J. O. Urmson. Cornell University Printing. 1992. p. 142. ISBN0-8014-2817-3.
  3. ^ Zeller, Eduard (1880). The Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics. Translated by Oswald J. Reichel. London: Longmans, Green and Co. pp. 166–7.
  4. ^ Sellers, John (2006). Stoicism . Apprehending. p. 99. ISBN978-1-84465-053-eight.
  5. ^ White, Michael J. (2003). "Stoic Natural Philosophy (Physics and Cosmology)". In Inwood, Brad (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics. Cambridge University Press. pp. 141–2. ISBN0-521-77985-v.
  6. ^ Plato, Timaeus 39d.
  7. ^ "Stoicism: Physical Theory". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Retrieved 11 December 2021.
  8. ^ Salles, Ricardo (2005). "On the Individuation of Times and Events in Orthodox Stoicism". In Salles, Ricardo (ed.). Metaphysics, Soul, and Ethics in Ancient Thought. Clarendon Press. p. 107. ISBN0-19-926130-X.
  9. ^ Origen: Contra Celsum. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Cambridge University Press. 1965. p. 238 (volume IV, section 68).
  10. ^ Chadwick 1965, pp. 279–fourscore (volume Five, section 20).
  11. ^ White 2003, p. 143
  12. ^ Origen: On Get-go Principles . Translated by Chiliad. W. Butterworth. Harper & Row. 1966. pp. 87–8 (volume II, chapter 3, section 4).
  13. ^ a b Augustine: The City of God Against the Pagans . Translated by R. W. Dyson. Cambridge Academy Press. 1998. pp. 516–7 (volume XII, chapter 14).
  14. ^ Anderson, R. Lanier (17 March 2017). "Friedrich Nietzsche". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  15. ^ D'Iorio, Paolo (2014). "The Eternal Return: Genesis and Interpretation". Lexicon Philosophicum (two): 66–67. doi:10.19283/lph-20142.414.
  16. ^ D'Iorio 2014, pp. 68–74
  17. ^ D'Iorio 2014, p. 42–43
  18. ^ "Eternity by the Stars (1872)". The Blanqui Archive.
  19. ^ a b c Nietzsche, Friedrich (1911). Ecce Homo. Translated past Anthony G. Ludovici. Macmillan. p. 96.
  20. ^ a b Kaufmann, Walter A. (1974). Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (quaternary ed.). Princeton University Press. pp. 317–319.
  21. ^ D'Iorio 2014, p. 43, 74
  22. ^ Fouillée, Alfred (1909). "Note sur Nietzsche et Lange: 'le retour éternel'". Revue philosophique de la France et de fifty'étranger (in French). 67: 519–525.
  23. ^ Schacht, Richard (2001). Nietzsche's Postmoralism: Essays on Nietzsche's Prelude to Philosophy's Futurity. Cambridge University Printing. p. 237. ISBN978-0-521-64085-5.
  24. ^ Kaufmann, Walter, ed. (1954). The Portable Nietzsche . The Viking Printing. p. 435.
  25. ^ Heidegger, Martin (1984). Nietzsche, Book Two: The Eternal Recurrence of the Same. Translated by David Farrell Krell. New York: Harper and Row. p. 25.
  26. ^ Nietzsche, Frederich. Kaufmann, Walter, trans. Bones Writings of Nietzsche. Modern Library (Nov 28, 2000). ISBN 978-0679783398 p. 714
  27. ^ a b c d Sinhababu, Neil; Kuong, Un Teng (2019). "Loving the Eternal Recurrence". The Journal of Nietzsche Studies. 50 (1): 106–124. doi:10.5325/jnietstud.fifty.1.0106.
  28. ^ Ludovici, Anthony Grand., ed. (1913). Friedrich Nietzsche: The Will to Power. Vol. Ii. §1066 – via Project Gutenberg.
  29. ^ Kaufmann 1974, p. 327
  30. ^ a b Oger, Eric (1997). "The Eternal Return equally Crucial Test". Journal of Nietzsche Studies (fourteen): 4–7. JSTOR 20717674.
  31. ^ Ludovici, Anthony Chiliad., ed. (1911). "The Eternal Recurrence". Friedrich Nietzsche: The Twilight of the Idols. §28 – via Projection Gutenberg.
  32. ^ Kaufmann 1974, pp. 22–23
  33. ^ Rosen, Stanley (1995). The Mask of Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. ix–10. ISBN0-521-49546-half dozen.
  34. ^ Webb, James (1980). The Harmonious Circle. J. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 96. ISBN0-399-11465-3.
  35. ^ Wilson, Colin (2005). The Strange Life of P. D. Ouspensky. Aeon Books. p. thirteen. ISBN1-904658-25-three.
  36. ^ Webb 1980, pp. 452–453
  37. ^ Wilson 2005, p. 73
  38. ^ Ouspensky, P. D. (1950). In Search of the Miraculous. Routledge and Kegan Paul Limited. p. 250.
  39. ^ Ouspensky, P. D. (1938). "Eternal Recurrence and the Laws of Manu". A New Model of the Universe (tertiary ed.). Routledge and Kegan Paul Limited. pp. 464–513.
  40. ^ a b Tipler, Frank J. (1980). "General Relativity and the Eternal Return". Essays in General Relativity: A Festschrift for Abraham Taub. Bookish Printing. pp. 21–22. ISBN978-one-4832-7362-4.
  41. ^ Sinai, VA. G. (1976). Introduction to Ergodic Theory. Translated past V. Scheffer. Princeton University Press. p. eight. ISBN0-691-08182-4.
  42. ^ a b de Gosson, Maurice A. (June 2018). "The Symplectic Camel and Poincaré Superrecurrence: Open Problems". Entropy. 20 (vii). doi:10.3390/e20070499.

Farther reading

  • Hatab, Lawrence J. (2005). Nietzsche's Life Sentence: Coming to Terms with Eternal Recurrence. New York: Routledge. ISBN0-415-96758-9.
  • Lukacher, Ned (1998). Time-Fetishes: The Secret History of Eternal Recurrence. Durham, Due north.C.: Duke University Press. ISBN0-8223-2253-6.
  • Magnus, Bernd (1978). Nietzsche'southward Existential Imperative. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN0-253-34062-four.

External links [edit]

  • Quotations related to Eternal render at Wikiquote

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_return

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