Rick Roderick on Nietzsche and the Eternal Recurrence [full length]

This video is 5th in the 8-part series, Nietzsche and the Postmodern Condition (1991).

Lecture notes:

I. Nietzsche invested himself as a character who would stand out above the text -- an act of self creation.

II. There is a sociological dimension to the "death of God" parable.

A. The death of God is a metaphor that signals something that's perhaps still on it's way. (It has yet to be understood in full.)

B. Society has changed in such a way that it is difficult to be religious. (Weber called this the disenchantment of the world.)

III. Nietzsche is known as the teacher of the eternal recurrence.

A. He's reluctant to give didactic answers because he's too decadent (born between two worlds).

B. Eternal recurrence is a challenge to self creation.

C. Nietzsche asks a horrifying question: what if everything that occurred -- occurred again -- just as it happened before?

D. Are you leading the kind of life that you'd be willing to live over again and again?

E. The challenge is to live an interesting life.

F. Nietzsche has more in mind than just changing jobs.

G. He uses a myth because of his rejection of dogmatic philosophy. The burden is on the reader.

H. Modernists are perplexed, frightened, and fascinated by death.

I. The threat of an apocalypse is fascinating to people because it is a communal experience.

J. Nietzsche was acutely, and perhaps pathologically aware of his own self creation.

K. Freud's biographer said that Freud said that Nietzsche knew more about himself than any man who ever lived or was likely to live.

L. Nietzsche loved fate. It's a threat and an opportunity.

For more information, see http://www.rickroderick.org

A philosophy podcast, The Partially Examined Life, held a detailed discussion of Nietzsche, which can be found here:

http://www.partiallyexaminedlife.com/2009/11/10/episode-11-nietzsches-immoralism-what-is-ethics-anyway/

Видео Rick Roderick on Nietzsche and the Eternal Recurrence [full length] канала The Partially Examined Life