by Jason Stotts
Although I am a big fan of Nietzsche and I think he got many things right, I certainly do not endorse him entirely. There is much to Nietzsche that just does not make sense. As an example of this, he has a doctrine of “Eternal Return,” whereby he asserts that all that is, has been before an infinite number of times, and will be again an infinite number of times.
The heaviest burden. – What, if someday or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and an innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have return to you all in the same succession and sequence […] Would you not throw yourself down and gnash you teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you would have answered him; “You are a God and never have I heard anything more divine.” (from The Gay Science)
Taken literally, the doctrine of Eternal Return makes no sense and there is no evidence for it. However, what if we take it metaphorically? What if the doctrine of eternal return is only meant to force us to think about how we are living? Viewed this way, the doctrine becomes a new lens through which to see our lives and helps us to gain a perspective on our actions. Would you do the same things, if you knew you would have to do them an infinite number of times in the future? Would you more carefully consider each decision and make each hour count?
Think about it.