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In Theory That Is but Then Again That Might Not Be a Bad Idea

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Concept that the universe and all beingness is perpetually recurring

"Eternal recurrence" redirects hither. For other uses, run across Eternal Recurrence.

Eternal return (German: Ewige Wiederkunft; also known as eternal recurrence) is a concept that the universe and all beingness and energy has been recurring, and volition continue to recur an infinite number of times beyond infinite fourth dimension or space.

Classical antiquity [edit]

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

Pythagoreanism [edit]

According to Porphyry, information technology was ane of the teachings of Pythagoras (c. 570 – c. 495 BC) that "after certain specified periods, the aforementioned events occur once again" and that "nix was entirely new".[ane] Eudemus of Rhodes as well references this Pythagorean doctrine in his commentary on Aristotle'south Physics. In a fragment preserved past Simplicius, Eudemus writes:[two]

I might raise the problem whether the aforementioned fourth dimension recurs, as some say, or not. "The same" has many senses: the same in class seems to occur equally do spring and winter and the other seasons and periods; similarly the same changes occur in form, for the dominicus performs its solstices and equinoxes and its other journeys. Only if someone were to believe the Pythagoreans that numerically the same things recur, and so I as well volition romance, holding my staff, while you sit there, and everything else volition be the aforementioned, and it is plausible to say that the fourth dimension will be the aforementioned.

Stoicism [edit]

The Stoics, maybe inspired by the Pythagoreans,[three] incorporated the theory of eternal recurrence into their natural philosophy. According to Stoic physics, the universe is periodically destroyed in an immense conflagration (ekpyrosis), then experiences a rebirth (palingenesis). These cycles go on for eternity, and the aforementioned events are exactly repeated in every wheel.[four] The Stoics may have found support for this doctrine in the concept of the Great Year,[5] the oldest known expression of which is found in Plato's Timaeus. Plato hypothesised that ane complete bike of time would exist fulfilled when the sunday, moon and planets all completed their various circuits and returned to their original positions.[6]

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

They agree that subsequently the conflagration still things come to be again in the world numerically, then that even the aforementioned peculiarly qualified individual equally before exists and comes to be again in that world, as Chrysippus says in his books On the Globe.

On the other manus, Origen (c. 185 – c. 253 Advert) characterises the Stoics as claiming that the contents of each cycle will non be identical, but just indistinguishable:[ix]

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

Origen besides records a heterodox version of the doctrine, noting that some Stoics suggest that "in that location is a slight and very infinitesimal departure betwixt ane period and the events in the period before it".[ten] This was probably non a widely-held belief, equally information technology represents a denial of the deterministic viewpoint which stands at the middle of Stoic philosophy.[xi]

Christian response [edit]

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

Augustine besides mentions "sure philosophers" who cite Ecclesiastes 1:nine–10 as evidence of eternal return: "What is that which hath been? It is that which shall be. And what is that which is done? It is that which shall be done: and in that location is no new thing nether the lord's day. Who can speak and say, See, this is new? It hath been already of one-time time, which was before us." 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 support of his argument, he appeals to scriptural passages such as Romans 6:9, which affirms that Christ "being raised from the dead dieth no more".[13]

Friedrich Nietzsche [edit]

Eternal recurrence is one of the central concepts of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900).[14] While the idea itself is non original to Nietzsche, his unique response to it gave new life to the theory, and speculation as to the correct estimation of Nietzsche's doctrine continues to this day.

Precursors [edit]

The discovery of the laws of thermodynamics in the 19th century restarted the fence among scientists and philosophers about the ultimate fate of the universe, which brought in its train many questions well-nigh the nature of time.[15] Eduard von Hartmann argued that the universe's final state would be identical to the land in which it had begun; Eugen Dühring rejected this idea, claiming that it carried with it the necessary outcome that the universe would begin again, and that the same forms would repeat themselves eternally, a doctrine which Dühring viewed as dangerously pessimistic.[16] Johann Gustav Vogt [de], on the other hand, argued in favour of a cyclical system, additionally positing the spatial co-beingness of an infinite number of identical worlds.[17] Louis Auguste Blanqui similarly claimed that in an infinite universe, every possible combination of forms must repeat itself eternally across both time and infinite.[xviii]

Nietzsche'south conception [edit]

Nietzsche wrote that the concept of eternal render kickoff occurred to him at Lake Silvaplana, "abreast a huge rock that towered aloft similar a pyramid".[19]

Nietzsche may take drawn 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 have encountered references to Blanqui in a book past Friedrich Albert Lange.[22] He was also a fan of the writer Heinrich Heine, one of whose books contains a passage discussing the theory of eternal render.[xx] Nevertheless, Nietzsche claimed that the doctrine, as it appears in his ain works, struck him one day equally a sudden revelation, while walking abreast Lake Silvaplana.[19]

The beginning published presentation of Nietzsche'south version of the theory appears in The Gay Science, department 341, where information technology is proposed to the reader as a thought experiment:

What if some solar day or nighttime a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness, and say to yous, "This life every bit you lot now alive it and have lived it, y'all will have to live once more and innumerable times more than; and at that place will exist naught new in information technology, simply every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or peachy in your life will have to return to y'all, all in the same succession and sequence ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have yous one time experienced a tremendous moment when y'all would take answered him: "You are a god and never accept I heard anything more than divine."[23]

Nietzsche expands upon this concept in the philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra, later writing that eternal return was "the fundamental idea of the work".[19] In this novel, the titular Zarathustra is initially struck with horror at the thought that all things must recur eternally; ultimately, however, he overcomes his aversion to eternal render and embraces it as his most fervent want. In the penultimate chapter of the work ("The Drunken Song"), Zarathustra declares: "All things are entangled, ensnared, enamored; if you ever wanted ane affair twice, if you always said, 'You 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 commencement mention of eternal recurrence in The Gay Scientific discipline presents this concept every bit a hypothetical question rather than postulating it as a fact. According to Heidegger, the significant bespeak is the brunt imposed by the question of eternal recurrence, regardless of whether or not such a thing could possibly be 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 human is amor fati: that ane wants nothing to be dissimilar, not frontward, non backward, non in all eternity. Not but to bear what is necessary, still less conceal it […] but honey it."[26] [27]

On the other hand, Nietzsche's posthumously published notebooks comprise an attempt at a logical proof of eternal return, which is oftentimes adduced in support of the claim that Nietzsche believed in the theory equally a existent possibility.[27] The proof is based upon the premise that the universe is space in elapsing, but contains a finite quantity of energy. This being the case, all matter in the universe must pass through a finite number of combinations, and each series of combinations must eventually repeat in the same order, thereby creating "a round movement of absolutely identical series".[28] However, scholars such as Neil Sinhababu and Kuong Un Teng take suggested that the reason this material remained unpublished was considering Nietzsche himself was unconvinced that his argument would hold upwards to scrutiny.[27] [note one]

A third possibility is that Nietzsche was attempting to create a new ethical standard by which people should approximate their own behaviour.[xxx] In i of his unpublished notes, Nietzsche writes: "The question which thou wilt have to reply earlier every deed that m doest: 'is this such a human activity 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 equally comparable to the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant.[32] Once more, however, the objection is raised that no such ethical imperative appears in any of Nietzsche'southward published writings,[30] and this interpretation is therefore rejected past nearly mod scholars.[27]

Deleuzeian Estimation [edit]

Philosopher Gilles Deleuze in his book Nietzsche and Philosophy interprets the Eternal Return not as the reiteration of all forces of becoming, but merely the active forces which are in turn defined by 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 prone to vivid 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 explanation for his experiences.[35] He subsequently explored the idea in his semi-autobiographical novel, Strange Life of Ivan Osokin.

In this story, Ivan Osokin implores a sorcerer to send him back to his childhood and give him the chance to live his life again. The magician obliges, but warns Ivan that he will be unable to correct whatever of his mistakes. This turns out to be the case; although Ivan always knows in accelerate what the outcome of his actions will be, he is unable to keep himself from repeating those actions. Having re-lived his life up to the point of his conversation with the magician, Ivan asks in despair whether there is any way of changing the past. The magician answers that he must kickoff change himself; if he works on improving his grapheme, he may have a take a chance of making improve decisions next time effectually.

The earliest version of the novel, all the same, did not include the magician,[36] and concluded on "a totally pessimistic annotation".[37] The revolution in Ouspensky's thoughts on recurrence – the idea that change is possible – took place after he became a disciple of the mystic George Gurdjieff, who taught that a person could accomplish a higher country of consciousness through a system of strict self-discipline. When Ouspensky asked virtually eternal recurrence, Gurdjieff told him:[38]

This idea of repetition ... is not the full and absolute truth, but information technology is the nearest possible approximation of the truth ... And if you sympathize why I practice non speak of this, yous volition be even so nearer to it. What is the use of a man knowing about recurrence if he is not conscious of it and if he himself does not alter? ... Knowledge most the repetition of lives volition add goose egg for a human being ... if he does not strive to modify himself in lodge to escape this repetition. But if he changes something essential in himself, that is, if he attains something, this cannot be lost.

Ouspensky incorporated this idea into his later on writings. In A New Model of the Universe, he argued against Nietzsche'due south proof of the mathematical necessity of eternal repetition, challenge that a large enough quantity of affair would be capable of an infinite number of possible combinations. Co-ordinate to Ouspensky, anybody is reborn over again into the same life at the moment of their death, and many people will indeed go along to live the exact same lives for eternity, only information technology is also possible to suspension the cycle and enter into a new plane of existence.[39]

Science and mathematics [edit]

The Poincaré recurrence theorem states that certain dynamical systems, such as particles of gas in a sealed container, volition return infinitely often to a country arbitrarily close to their original state.[40] [41] The theorem, first advanced by Henri Poincaré in 1890, remains influential, and is today the basis of ergodic theory.[42] Attempts have been made to prove or disprove the possibility of Poincaré recurrence in a system the size of a galaxy or a universe.[40] [42]

See also [edit]

  • Fractals
  • Endless knot
  • Eureka: A Prose Poem – Lengthy non-fiction work by American writer Edgar Allan Poe
  • Historic recurrence – Repetition of similar events in history
  • Mandala – Spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism
  • Möbius strip – Not-orientable surface with one edge
  • Ouroboros – Symbolic serpent with its tail in its oral cavity
  • Bicycle of time – Religious and philosophical concept of cyclical, repeating epochs or ages

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ One rebuttal of Nietzsche'due south theory, put forward by his gimmicky Georg Simmel, is summarised by Walter Kaufmann every bit follows: "Even if there were exceedingly few things in a finite space in an infinite time, they would not take to repeat in the aforementioned configurations. Suppose in that location were 3 wheels of equal size, rotating on the same axis, ane point marked on the circumference of each cycle, and these 3 points lined up in one straight line. If the 2nd wheel rotated twice equally fast equally the beginning, and if the speed of the third wheel 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 by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie. 1920. Hosted at the Tertullian Project.
  2. ^ Simplicius: On Aristotle's Physics 4.one-5, ten-xiv . Translated by J. O. Urmson. Cornell Academy Press. 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 . Acumen. p. 99. ISBN978-1-84465-053-8.
  5. ^ White, Michael J. (2003). "Stoic Natural Philosophy (Physics and Cosmology)". In Inwood, Brad (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics. Cambridge Academy Press. pp. 141–2. ISBN0-521-77985-5.
  6. ^ Plato, Timaeus 39d.
  7. ^ "Stoicism: Physical Theory". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Retrieved xi 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-nineteen-926130-X.
  9. ^ Origen: Contra Celsum. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Cambridge University Press. 1965. p. 238 (book 4, department 68).
  10. ^ Chadwick 1965, pp. 279–lxxx (book 5, section twenty).
  11. ^ White 2003, p. 143
  12. ^ Origen: On Beginning Principles . Translated by G. Westward. Butterworth. Harper & Row. 1966. pp. 87–eight (book Two, chapter 3, section 4).
  13. ^ a b Augustine: The City of God Against the Pagans . Translated by R. W. Dyson. Cambridge University Press. 1998. pp. 516–seven (book XII, chapter 14).
  14. ^ Anderson, R. Lanier (17 March 2017). "Friedrich Nietzsche". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  15. ^ D'Iorio, Paolo (2014). "The Eternal Render: Genesis and Interpretation". Dictionary Philosophicum (2): 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 by Anthony Yard. Ludovici. Macmillan. p. 96.
  20. ^ a b Kaufmann, Walter A. (1974). Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (fourth 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 French republic et de 50'étranger (in French). 67: 519–525.
  23. ^ Schacht, Richard (2001). Nietzsche's Postmoralism: Essays on Nietzsche's Prelude to Philosophy's Future. Cambridge University Press. 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, Volume 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. Basic Writings of Nietzsche. Modern Library (Nov 28, 2000). ISBN 978-0679783398 p. 714
  27. ^ a b c d Sinhababu, Neil; Kuong, United nations Teng (2019). "Loving the Eternal Recurrence". The Journal of Nietzsche Studies. 50 (1): 106–124. doi:10.5325/jnietstud.50.1.0106.
  28. ^ Ludovici, Anthony K., ed. (1913). Friedrich Nietzsche: The Will to Power. Vol. Two. §1066 – via Projection Gutenberg.
  29. ^ Kaufmann 1974, p. 327
  30. ^ a b Oger, Eric (1997). "The Eternal Return as Crucial Test". Periodical of Nietzsche Studies (fourteen): 4–seven. JSTOR 20717674.
  31. ^ Ludovici, Anthony Grand., 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 Printing. pp. ix–x. ISBN0-521-49546-6.
  34. ^ Webb, James (1980). The Harmonious Circumvolve. J. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 96. ISBN0-399-11465-3.
  35. ^ Wilson, Colin (2005). The Foreign Life of P. D. Ouspensky. Aeon Books. p. 13. ISBN1-904658-25-3.
  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 Express. p. 250.
  39. ^ Ouspensky, P. D. (1938). "Eternal Recurrence and the Laws of Manu". A New Model of the Universe (3rd ed.). Routledge and Kegan Paul Express. pp. 464–513.
  40. ^ a b Tipler, Frank J. (1980). "General Relativity and the Eternal Return". Essays in Full general Relativity: A Festschrift for Abraham Taub. Academic Press. pp. 21–22. ISBN978-1-4832-7362-4.
  41. ^ Sinai, VA. One thousand. (1976). Introduction to Ergodic Theory. Translated by V. Scheffer. Princeton Academy Press. p. 8. ISBN0-691-08182-4.
  42. ^ a b de Gosson, Maurice A. (June 2018). "The Symplectic Camel and Poincaré Superrecurrence: Open up Problems". Entropy. 20 (7). doi:x.3390/e20070499.

Farther reading

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

External links [edit]

  • Quotations related to Eternal return at Wikiquote

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

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