Eternal return

Eternal return (german: Ewige Wiederkunft; also known as eternal recurrence) is a concept that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur in a self similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. The concept is found in Indian philosophy and in ancient Egypt and was subsequently taken up by the Pythagoreans and Stoics. With the decline of antiquity and the spread of Christianity, the concept fell into disuse in the Western world, with the exception of 19th century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who resurrected it as a thought experiment.

Eternal return relates to the philosophy of predeterminism in that people are predestined to continue repeating the same events over and over again.

Classical antiquity

In ancient Greece, the concept of eternal return was most 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 end to classical theories of eternal return, which were incompatible with Christian notions of free will and salvation.

Pythagoreanism

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 again" and that "nothing was entirely new". Eudemus of Rhodes also references this Pythagorean doctrine in his commentary on Aristotle's ''Physics''. In a fragment preserved by Simplicius, Eudemus writes:

Stoicism

The Stoics, possibly inspired by the Pythagoreans, incorporated the theory of eternal recurrence into their natural philosophy. According to Stoic physics, the universe is periodically destroyed in an immense conflagration ('' ekpyrosis''), and then experiences a rebirth (''palingenesis''). These cycles continue for eternity, and the same events are exactly repeated in every cycle. The Stoics may have found support for this doctrine in the concept of the Great Year, the oldest known expression of which is found in Plato's '' Timaeus''. Plato hypothesised that one complete cycle of time would be fulfilled when the sun, moon and planets all completed their various circuits and returned to their original positions.

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

On the other hand, Origen (c. 185 – c. 253 AD) characterises the Stoics as claiming that the contents of each cycle will not be identical, but only indistinguishable:

Origen also records a heterodox version of the doctrine, noting that some Stoics suggest that "there is a slight and very minute difference between one period and the events in the period before it". This was probably not a widely-held belief, as it represents a denial of the deterministic viewpoint which stands at the heart of Stoic philosophy.

Christian response

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). Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) 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 be truly blessed if it was doomed to return again to misery.

Augustine also mentions "certain philosophers" who cite Ecclesiastes 1:9–10 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 there is no new thing under the sun. Who can speak and say, See, this is new? It hath been already of old 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".

Friedrich Nietzsche

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

Precursors

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

Nietzsche's formulation

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

The first published presentation of Nietzsche's version of the theory appears in ''The Gay Science'', section 341, where it is proposed to the reader as a thought experiment:

Nietzsche expands upon this concept in the philosophical novel ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', later writing that eternal return was "the fundamental idea of the work". 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 return and embraces it as his most fervent desire. In the penultimate chapter of the work ("The Drunken Song"), Zarathustra declares: "All things are entangled, ensnared, enamored; if you ever wanted one thing twice, if you ever said, 'You please me, happiness! Abide, moment!' then you wanted ''all'' back ... ''For all joy wants—eternity''."

Interpretation

Martin Heidegger points out that Nietzsche's first mention of eternal recurrence in ''The Gay Science'' presents this concept as a hypothetical question rather than postulating it as a fact. According to Heidegger, the significant point is the burden imposed by the ''question'' of eternal recurrence, regardless of whether or not such a thing could possibly be true. The concept of eternal recurrence appears similar to Nietzsche’s concept of ''amor fati'', which Nietzsche describes: "My formula for greatness in a human being is ''amor fati'': that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely to bear what is necessary, still less conceal it ��but ''love'' it."

On the other hand, Nietzsche's posthumously published notebooks contain an attempt at a logical proof of eternal return, which is often adduced in support of the claim that Nietzsche believed in the theory as a real possibility. The proof is based upon the premise that the universe is infinite in duration, 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 circular movement of absolutely identical series". However, scholars such as Neil Sinhababu and Kuong Un Teng have suggested that the reason this material remained unpublished was because Nietzsche himself was unconvinced that his argument would hold up to scrutiny.

A third possibility is that Nietzsche was attempting to create a new ethical standard by which people should judge their own behaviour. In one of his unpublished notes, Nietzsche writes: "The question which thou wilt have to answer 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." Taken in this sense, the doctrine has been seen as comparable to the categorical imperative of Immanuel Kant. Once again, however, the objection is raised that no such ethical imperative appears in any of Nietzsche's published writings, and this interpretation is therefore rejected by most modern scholars.

P. D. Ouspensky

Russian esotericist P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) believed in the literal truth of eternal recurrence. As a child, he had been prone to vivid sensations of ''déjà vu'', and when he encountered the theory of eternal return in the writings of Nietzsche, it occurred to him that this was a possible explanation for his experiences. He subsequently explored the idea 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 give him the chance to live his life over again. The magician obliges, but warns Ivan that he will be unable to correct any of his mistakes. This turns out to be the case; although Ivan always knows in advance 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 first change himself; if he works on improving his character, he may have a chance of making better decisions next time around.

The earliest version of the novel, however, did not include the magician, and ended on "a totally pessimistic note". 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 achieve a higher state of consciousness through a system of strict self-discipline. When Ouspensky asked about eternal recurrence, Gurdjieff told him:

Ouspensky incorporated this idea into his later writings. In ''A New Model of the Universe'', he argued against Nietzsche's proof of the mathematical necessity of eternal repetition, claiming that a large enough quantity of matter would be capable of an infinite number of possible combinations. According to Ouspensky, everyone is reborn again into the same life at the moment of their death, and many people will indeed continue to live the exact same lives for eternity, but it is also possible to break the cycle and enter into a new plane of existence.

Science and mathematics

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

See also

Notes

References

Further reading
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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eternal Return
Causality
Religious cosmologies
Philosophy of religion
Philosophy of time
Periodic phenomena