Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence and the Superman Ideal

Introduction: Origins of Eternal Recurrence

The concept of the eternal return — or eternal recurrence — is one of Friedrich Nietzsche's most important philosophical contributions. However, the concept was not created by Nietzsche; rather, he expanded upon it and incorporated it into his overall philosophical worldview. The idea has its origins with the Pythagoreans, who believed that whenever the heavenly bodies returned to certain fixed relative positions, another cycle in the history of the universe would begin.

Nietzsche encountered the idea in his readings of Heinrich Heine, whom he greatly admired. The essence of Heine's thought, which Nietzsche appropriated, can be seen in the following quotation:

For time is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies are finite… Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations that have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again… And thus it will happen one day that a man will be born again, just like me, and a woman will be born, just like Mary. (Citation from Kaufmann's Translator's Introduction to The Gay Science, p. 16; McDonald, M.)

The Theory of Eternal Recurrence Explained

For Nietzsche, the concept of the eternal return was terrifying and paralyzing to the will. In essence, the eternal recurrence is the theory that there is infinite time and a finite number of events, and that eventually all events will recur again and again, infinitely. The following passage from The Will to Power explains the theory:

If the world may be thought of as a certain definite quantity of force and as a certain definite number of centers of force — and every other representation remains indefinite and therefore useless — it follows that, in the great dice game of existence, it must pass through a calculable number of combinations. In infinite time, every possible combination would at some time or another be realized; more: it would be realized an infinite number of times. And since between every combination and its next recurrence all other possible combinations would have to take place, and each of these combinations conditions the entire sequence of combinations in the same series, a circular movement of absolutely identical series is thus demonstrated: the world as a circular movement that has already repeated itself infinitely often and plays its game in infinitum. (ibid.)

For Nietzsche this was an image of horror: all the world's suffering would be repeated ad infinitum, and there were no final goals in life — only a perpetual repetition of the same. The idea of eternal return is intimately linked to another important aspect of his philosophy: the will to endure and the meaning of the Superman.

Nihilism and the Rejection of False Ideals

Nietzsche's nihilism is also an important element in understanding the concept of eternal recurrence. Nietzsche believed that there was no inherent order or structure to the world. Humanity creates order and form, but there is no order or form as such in nature. In other words, our concepts of order and reality are contingent on our own ideas, and there is no ideal reality to which we can subscribe.

While nihilism may seem entirely negative, it carries important positive consequences within Nietzsche's thought. If there are no illusions or false ideals to subscribe to, then we harbor no illusions about life and will not be led into false assumptions about what life should be. We will not be tempted to waste our energy on goals and dreams that do not exist in reality. People who are free of illusions will not be tempted to measure human life against some ideal that is itself an illusion.

For example, the ideals embedded in many religions, while containing positive elements, have undoubtedly brought suffering and pain to many as a consequence of striving toward the unattainable. One need only study the Christian Crusades, in which the ideals of Christian theology were imposed upon other cultures, to substantiate this view.

The central positive element that can be drawn from Nietzsche's philosophy of eternal recurrence is the emphasis on exposing ideology as illusion. This may be compared to the Buddhist concept of illusion, with the important difference that Buddhism does not embrace nihilism. Unimpeded by illusions about life or reality — and freed from the striving toward ideals that do not exist — Nietzsche saw the aim of life as the improvement and development of humanity. Mankind, in his view, had not achieved its true potential precisely because it had been continually impeded by false illusions and ideals, including adherence to normative moralities.

The freedom from both good and evil follows from his understanding of the illusionary quality of all ideals, and from his conviction that all values and morals are relative — dependent and contingent on situation and context. There is no "good" as such, only relative good according to various cultural and social factors. Central to Nietzsche's philosophy was the possibility of transcending both good and evil. He argued that until that point, all goals and aims had been relative and illusionary, preventing humanity from pursuing any genuine purpose.