Live Forever and Never Say Die
The Eternal Recurrence
What if time wasn’t linear? What if you always existed? What if there was no beginning and no end? The idea of the Eternal Recurrence can help to answer these questions.
ETERNAL RECURRENCE
We often find ourselves wondering in life: “is this it?… is this all life has for us?,” questioning the meaning of our existence. It seems that if we are asking ourselves these questions, then we already see no hope and meaning to our existence. As Chris Rohmann states, “eternal recurrence is the idea that time and history repeat themselves in cycles (World of Ideas, p 122).”
While the idea of the Eternal Recurrence stretches back to the Ancient Greeks and Hindus, Friedrich Nietzsche provided the most thorough analysis of the idea in modern times.
Regarding eternal recurrence in his book “Will to Power,” Nietzsche stated that…”the universe is a monster of energy, without beginning or end…it is rather energy everywhere, the play of forces and force-waves, at the same time one and many…forever changing, forever rolling back over incalculable ages to recurrence (Will to Power, p. 490).”
I wrote previously about another thought experiment Nietzche gave about eternal recurrence, see here. This is a thought experiment to help you live life to its fullest and not waste it. The idea is that if you have to live your life start to finish repeatedly forever, would you be happy or thankful? If you would be happy with it, then keep living your life as you are. If you would be terrified with living your life forever, then change how you’re living it. Don’t waste the current and only life that you have. It’s not your typical “what if” thought experiment in philosophy that has no real-world application.
If we take away religion, morality and the afterlife, we are left with no universal meaning to time or life. The only meaning to life is the meaning that we give it. There is no creation, beginning or end; we just simply exist. In other words, life simply repeats itself, whether it’s civilization, ideas, or politics. For example, you can go back to Plato’s Republic, and you’ll find Socrates having similar dialogues that we still have nowadays about society and how the state should be ran.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
make the most out of your life
live your life as you see fit and don’t worry about judgement from others
actions you take in life now will have an impact on future generations after you’re gone if history repeats itself
Notes:
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1906). Will To Power. Barnes and Noble, Inc.
Rohmann, Chris (1999). A World of Ideas. The Random House Publishing Group.