The REAL meaning of Nietzsche's Eternal Recurrence

Nietzsche on the eternal recurrence is an old trope, but it's rarely got right. This is not only a video about Nietzsche; it is a Nietzschean video. I hope it succeeds in introducing not just its topic, the eternal recurrence of the same as Friedrich Nietzsche saw it, but also Nietzsche's way of doing philosophy.

The eternal recurrence, sometimes call the eternal return, is for Nietzsche a thought experiment, aimed at helping us think and feel our way toward justifying our lives and justifying the world.

00:00 Nietzsche on The Eternal Recurrence
01:27 What Nietzsche didn't think
01:58 Eternal Recurrence of the same in Nietzsche's The Will to Power
03:24 Nietzsche's style
03:59 Nietzsche's question in the eternal recurrence
05:56 What Nietzsche meant by the eternal recurrence of the same
11:06 Eternal Recurrence and justifying your life
12:33 Nietzsche illness and health
14:41 Eternal Recurrence and justifying the world
15:15 Cecil Rhodes statue in Oxford - move or keep?
16:20 Equal moral worth of all human beings
17:08 Truthfulness and the Eternal Recurrence
18:18 A story about Isaiah Berlin by philosopher Avishai Margalit

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#vladvexlershow offers a guide to surviving the 21st century. Surviving it politically, culturally, aesthetically, and coming away with a vision of the world that is at once truthful but also hopeful.

Vlad Vexler is a philosopher, musicologist & arts consultant. He is slowly writing a book on Isaiah Berlin. Born in Russia in 1981, his home has been Israel, Australia, Tonga and now London. Since 2003 he has lived with the neuro immune condition ME. For several years he was unable to walk or talk or read. His PhD research focused on political liberty.

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[VladVexler]

📌 I'm really grateful! Thank you so much for following my channel. I've put more into this video and I hope it proves a useful and provocative resource for you! If you appreciate it, I would really love to ask you to share this channel with one person in your life who might get value from it. Love and thanks!

[piccalillipit]

*I WOULD NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT MY LIFE* even though I have suffered very greatly.

If it were not for the suffering I would not have the learning that has led me to live a very tiny, minimalist, happy, fulfilling life. I've been homeless and I have been a millionaire, I've been an alcoholic and a drug addict, I've been a victim of abuse and sufferer of brain damage and everything has led me to this moment of being happy... Ive thought this through a LOT

[justhome]

Nietzsche is a genius moral philosopher indeed. So is the ability to give a reading of Nietzsche that is both so strong and so highly accessible as you have done in this video. You are a great teacher Vlad and we are so lucky that we get to study with you through the magic of YouTube. Thank you for your channels in general and this video in particular. I can't quite articulate what it means to me because of very difficult health issues I am dealing with but because I am speaking to you I know I don't have to. Thank you for finding the courage and grace to say "yes to the world. " I hope I can too, somehow despite/because of it all.

[southbirdsouthbird]

Dear Vlad: In my humble opinion, you are a great gift to us all and I'm so happy to have recently found your channel. . . I find it so refreshing to find someone who gives a damn about Nietzsche and would even try to explain him. I never can. An anecdote: As a senior majoring in philosophy at Stanford in 1969 I proudly wrote my "magnum opus" senior thesis entitled "Camus' L'Etranger, The Myth of Sisyphus and Nietzsche's Theory of the Eternal Return". I thought I had finally and decisively resolved the issues. My professor gave me a good grade, but observed: "Nice try. It's difficult to explain the inexplicable" . . . Your take on it spoke to me and gave me solace.

[jamesanthony]

Loved this my friend, beautiful and felicitous production for a Nietzsche video. Would love to hear more about your own history with Nietzsche.

[kristalkristal]

I really enjoyed these two videos. Please make more.

I had an extremely vague idea about Nietzsche that went "... something, something, something about Nazism, someone said... I think" and also that the few people I ever talked to who volunteered, at length, that they were really into Nietzsche said some inscrutably weird and perhaps delusional stuff that gave me a really bad impression of him.
But yea, I keep hearing that he is supposed to be good, so maybe one day... Nietzsche.

That question, though, when I read it in your video. I felt that like a literal blow to the gut that went right up into my throat. I don't experience that very often. What a good question.

I came to the conclusion, at some point, that a life well lived would only be something that you could experience in a moment. This is because we are only alive in this moment and also because when we feel really right about how things are, it doesn't matter how we got there. Indeed, we retrospectively reframe, recast and literally re-order our own memories throughout our lives (funny thing that you learn in psych/neuroscience). So memory is not fixed at all. It is a living, growing thing, and it changes throughout our lives and for so long as we do. Memory is not about the past, in other words. Memory is about the present.

So this is the life well lived, I figured: At some point, some time, some where, you will get to sit down and feel the complete rightness of what is, no matter what it is. Then you will do that human thing and take your thread of meaning-making and connect those memories, with the thread, into a story that is deeply satisfying to that hungry spot inside of you. You won't even realize you are doing it, probably, but you will feel that this moment is right and that therefore whatever got you here is also right. In that some-time moment is your life-well-lived. And it will be complete and enough because you are only ever alive in this moment. Strive for that.

This question is in the same general neighbourhood as that thought (so long as it's a really big neighbourhood), but it is so much more demanding. What would I need, who would I need to be in order to answer "Yes"?

That's quite something... I feel like it sits heavy on me right now, but I also feel the power in such a question which could completely energize a life, if it were taken as a commitment.

[PiccadillyHangover]

Great video! I initially found your channel through your video on Beethoven's Heiligenstädter Testament and got convinced to watch more of it after seeing the one on Glenn Gould. You put out great quality. Thank you! I'll be sure to share with friends.

[OscarCuzzani]

Beautiful thought exercise!
Thank you Vlad to put concise questions and clarifications!
Need to go back to what I read!!

[elliotvernon]

Excellent. I wish the world was such that you could do more Nietzsche and less Putin.

[leonelduarte]

Vlad .... it is marvelous listening you about philosophy. I just came across you about 2 months ago. it has been a pleasure listening to you.

[forrestweesner]

I have taken a few days of contemplation to be sure, but yes, I am quite certain you should keep making videos.

[josephlama]

"Life gives you things you didn't ask for." "Life gives you things you didn't ask for." "Life gives you things you didn't ask for."

Thank you Vlad -Joseph L. From Chicago

[nicolascostello]

very excited to be pressing 'play' on this video now :)

[iroseland]

great video! I have generally not thought that eternal recurrence was Nietzche suggesting it as a literal thing. I have always viewed it as more than just a though experiment, but a challenge. The past is immutable, we cannot change what is. We are still in the drivers seat though and can change what will be. Since you cannot change the past, it is better to see it for what it was and get comfortable with it not changing. Then, live exactly in the moment and live in a way that you would gladly repeat forever.

[geminibodyshop]

I’m loving your work a lot of it goes over my head but it makes me think and learn from it

[thomasnesmith]

Instinctively when you mentioned your health, I thought to feel sorry for you. But I realized that it is one of the best evidence you provided. If your life is predetermined (including suffering), choose to accept and move forward despite that. There is no reason to feel remorse or guilt about the illness. The only guilt would be not realizing these things don't control how you really feel about your life.

[Daphid]

Man, I must say, that your videos can hold the attention of a person with severe ADD, speaks volumes of your thoughts and how you explain them to us. Love your work man!

[williamfrost]

I enjoyed the artistic decisions in this upload. Thank you.

[jordicarreras]

Sorry for your loss. And thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[BigHenFor]

I saw your community poll, and I found that I could not - or would not - choose. It's your fault, because you didn't give us an option for 'Everything'. Lol. Your philosophy, and humanity informs what you do, so everything is worth the time. And you make me think. Thank you.