Though this seems like a good principle to apply to how one ought to live their life, and maybe it could help people to make better decisions if they felt they might live them over and over again, in my opinion it is far too simplistic. There is nothing new or life changing about this eternal return than there is from your every day “live a beautiful life” a cliché saying. I can try to live in a way that I think is beautiful and worth eternally recurring, but how does that really help me deal with life if I think it is “meaningless”? If this is truly an issue that I struggle with, how does this help me work through that and come out thinking that I can live a happy life without the presence of thoughts of meaninglessness, or guilt as mentioned in the earlier post. I don’t really think that it would. If I know that “eternally reoccurring” is not meant literally, and that this is just how I should strive to live, it doesn’t really address the issue. I should live as if I am going to live it all over again, but in reality I know that it is not really going to happen all over again—so what is the point? This leaves you right back at square one. In order to apply this you must live as if you do believe in the idea of eternally returning, but if you are living your life as if there is an eternal reoccurrence knowing there is not, what is the difference between that and still believing in your faith knowing that god is dead? You live your life for the goal of heaven and for god, and god gives you the forgiveness and the possibility for redemption that human beings seek—but god is dead, so it’s illogical. This eternal return is the same thing; you live your life for the hope of infinitely reliving a good life that is built on aesthetic values and living a personally pleasing life that gives it some kind of meaning—but the eternal return is figurative, so it’s illogical. It is the same game with a different name, and essentially you are left with the same issue you initially started with.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Dilvin Tayip's 2nd Blog Post: Nietzsche, The Eternal Return
Though this seems like a good principle to apply to how one ought to live their life, and maybe it could help people to make better decisions if they felt they might live them over and over again, in my opinion it is far too simplistic. There is nothing new or life changing about this eternal return than there is from your every day “live a beautiful life” a cliché saying. I can try to live in a way that I think is beautiful and worth eternally recurring, but how does that really help me deal with life if I think it is “meaningless”? If this is truly an issue that I struggle with, how does this help me work through that and come out thinking that I can live a happy life without the presence of thoughts of meaninglessness, or guilt as mentioned in the earlier post. I don’t really think that it would. If I know that “eternally reoccurring” is not meant literally, and that this is just how I should strive to live, it doesn’t really address the issue. I should live as if I am going to live it all over again, but in reality I know that it is not really going to happen all over again—so what is the point? This leaves you right back at square one. In order to apply this you must live as if you do believe in the idea of eternally returning, but if you are living your life as if there is an eternal reoccurrence knowing there is not, what is the difference between that and still believing in your faith knowing that god is dead? You live your life for the goal of heaven and for god, and god gives you the forgiveness and the possibility for redemption that human beings seek—but god is dead, so it’s illogical. This eternal return is the same thing; you live your life for the hope of infinitely reliving a good life that is built on aesthetic values and living a personally pleasing life that gives it some kind of meaning—but the eternal return is figurative, so it’s illogical. It is the same game with a different name, and essentially you are left with the same issue you initially started with.
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"in reality I know that it is not really going to happen all over again—so what is the point? This leaves you right back at square one."
ReplyDeleteDo we know that? Or, do we know that there's a practical, experiential difference between knowing that and believing that each moment is ultimately terminal? Either way, it seems possible to invest every moment with "the greatest weight" if that's all there is.