#eternal recurrence

[awakingdreamaway]

Eternal Recurrence l Rustin Cohle

~ L⋆.𖦹ׂ ⋆˙

#rustin cohle #rust cohle #matthew mcconaughey #true detective #true detective season 1 #rust cohle edit #true detective edit #time is a flat circle #eternal recurrence #black hole sun #superunknown #soundgarden #awakingdreamaway

[philosophicalconservatism]

Do you see history fundamentally moving in a linear or cyclical direction?

The belief that human history is necessarily linear or that it is necessarily cyclical conflicts with the notion of human beings as free will agents who determine their own destiny. So I do not embrace either one. The first belief (historicism) is in my opinion the more dangerous of the two. It is no accident that the ideas of the philosopher GWF Hegel serve as the framework of the most popular system of Socialism in existence: Marxism. The idea of inevitable linear historical progress gives man a passive role in his own story, and with a passive role comes a passive attitude, which is precisely what the authoritarian desires. A society that believes that its destiny is the product of greater forces has no reason to protect or to design its destiny. And when the people do not pilot their own society the state will do so (and not “history”).

The view that history is necessarily cyclical (Nietzsche) is one that I believe is based in despair, and it is once again inconsistent with the idea of human self determination. Now to be clear, I am not claiming that history cannot turn out to be either cyclical or linear, I am saying that it is not necessarily so. I believe that cycles can be broken (even though that can be deeply challenging) and I believe that progress is not inevitable.

#history #historicism #eternal recurrence #conservative

[henrykathman]

The Eternal Recurrence of Adventure Time

With the conclusion of season 1 of Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, this video seeks to explore the show's relationship with the philosophical concept of Eternal Recurrence, the notion that everything stays, right where we left it. But does everything truly stay without changing? Come along with me to find out!

Twitter | YouTube | Podcast | Patreon

Storyboards drawn by Evan Kisner

Additional voices by @LauraCrone as the Narrator Matt Crowly of @Videokind as Ivan Osokin @WensleydaleCheddar as the Magician

Music by Molly Noise 'In the Boathouse' from the Goncharov Soundtrack by Stella's Silver Screen 'Betty's Wish', 'Egress', 'Inside a Crown' from Ambient Time by Opus Science Collective

Works Cited

“Adventure Time: Distant Bands (the Music of Adventure Time).” Lost Extras, YouTube, 4 Apr. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2mCTDzOpg&pp=ygUmYWR2ZW50dXJlIHRpbWUgYmVoaW5kIHRoZSBzY2VuZXMgbXVzaWM%3D. Accessed 3 Dec. 2023.

Ouspensky, P. D. Strange Life of Ivan Osokin. 1915. Dead Authors Society, 2018, archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.241089/page/n71/mode/2up. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

Porphyry. The Life of Pythagoras. Edited by Patrick Rousell , Translated by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library, 1920.

“Pyotr Demyanovich Uspensky.” Wikipedia Russia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Oct. 2005, ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B8%D0%B9. Accessed 15 Dec. 2023.

Ward, Pendleton. “Adventure Time - a behind the Scenes Featurette by Pendleton Ward (2012).” Other Files: The Final Season, Youtube, 2012, youtu.be/Ymc9TrSTz7o?si=SOS1kEnFwRAv2kUm. Accessed 7 Dec. 2016.

Other Recommendations

Thomas, Paul. "“Everything Stays”: The Eternal Return and Amor Fati in the Adventure Time Miniseries Stakes." (2021).

@uncivilizedelk "The Meaning of Finn's Journey in "The Hall of Egress" (Adventure Time)" Mar 13, 2016

#adventure time #fionna and cake #fionna campbell #simon petrikov #fionna and cake spoilers #eternal recurrence #video essay #youtube #video #Youtube

[ringrandie]

Not me completely forgetting to actually introduce Randie haha...

The basics:

Randie is a purple Annulus/Circle with a Hole/Ring. They go primarily by she/they pronouns but she doesn't really mind if other pronouns are used.

She was in an eternal recurrence (for those who don't know what that is, pretty much once they die they return to the moment they were born), which is most likely what caused/ was caused by her shape.

This is all for now, either I'll post more later or yous can just ask

#gravity falls oc #annulus #flatsona #flatland #eternal return #eternal recurrence #introduction

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Ideas #45: Game of Thrones, but make it Reincarnation

I am a huge fan of eternal recurrence in media - the idea that all this has happened before, all this will happen again. I therefore have a tendency towards seeing patterns in works that were not perhaps intended by their authors, or, if they were, taking them to the utmost extreme.

Or: What if Jon Snow and Daenerys Stormborn are the latest incarnations of doomed Targaryen lovers?

Aka: The Aelor the Accursed Fic

Bear with me:

Prince Aelor was married to his twin sister Princess Aelora and died because of a mishap at her hand.

Before that Baelor Breakspear died of a mortal blow struck by the future King Maekor during the Tourney at Ashford Meadow.

Before that Prince Lucerys fell into Shipbreaker Bay during a fight with Prince Aemond...

...and because we know next to nothing about Aegon the Conqueror's forebears, there's no reason that, say, his ancestor Aenor the Exile couldn't be responsible for the death of his unknown great-grandmother through some mishap.

And since Game of Thrones is a world of magic, where the blood of kings can preform miracles and the dead can come back to life, there's no reason why all these tragedies can't have occurred between the same two reincarnated souls throughout history.

Or: Jon Snow is the reincarnation of Prince Aelor, Baelor Breakspear, Prince Lucerys, and Aenar's unknown wife, while Daenerys is the reincarnation of Princess Aelora, King Maekor, Prince Aemond, and Aenar the Exile.

Just imagine it:

Events proceed as per canon, but Jon and Dany are haunted in dreams by memories they shouldn't have and can't fully recall upon waking. Jon, on some level, is always afraid he will be killed by the one he loves - and believes this has come true when he's killed by brothers of the Night's Watch after narrowly escaping death at Ygritte's hand. Dany, similarly, always feels like she is responsible for the death of the ones she loves - and believes this has come true with her mother, brother, first husband, and son.

Yet these dreams become worse when they finally meet.

The War for the Dawn is fought against the backdrop of an endless series of memories - Jon and Dany growing closer and falling apart as new memories coming to the forefront.

Jon wants to trust Dany, but all his dreams tell him that he must kill her before she kills him, whereas Dany is afraid about being the death of yet another person she loves.

The revelation of Jon's parentage is tangled up in the revelation of their reincarnations.

As Jon and Dany try to reconcile all of their past lives and all of the terrible things their past lives have done to each other, they reunite the Seven Kingdoms. Even as they marry and are crowned the co-rulers of Westeros - Jon taking the dynastic name Aelor I - they're still trying to overcome the actions of their past selves.

They spend the rest of their lives trying to break the cycle, with at least three notable near-misses. They succeed in the end, but have a relationship far more fraught than bards who tell the story of their meeting make out. Later historians are baffled by the dynamic, but place it down as Targaryen oddity.

Bonuses include: 1) Jon having an instinctual knowledge of High Valyrian because of the dreams and not realizing it until the first time Maester Aemon slips into the language in his presence; 2) The inherent complication that comes from having five sets of memories - perhaps even more from before the Doom - that tell you not to trust your lover, who will destroy you even if they don't intend it, and plunge the country you've just rebuilt into war; 3) The inherent complication of having five sets of memories - perhaps even more - that tell you that you can't be trusted, that you destroy everything you touch, and will inevitably lead the country you've just rebuilt back into war; and 4) A whole host of concerned friends and family members looking at Jon and Dany's relationship from the outside and being very concerned about their strange dynamic.

...and that's all I have. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you ever do anything with it.

Other Jon Snow Headcanons: Aelor the Accursed | Aegon the Adopted | Aegon the Undying | Aegon the Unyielding | Aemon the Adventurous | Baelor the Brave | Daeron the Desired | Dyanna the Defiant | King of the Ashes | Lady Arryn | Lady Baratheon | Lady Lannister | Lady Stark | Lord of the Dance | Prince Consort | Prince of Summerhall | Queen Mother | Rhaegar the Righteous

More Terrible Fic Ideas

#plot bunny #fic ideas #game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #house of the dragon #got #asoiaf #hotd #jon snow is a targaryen #jon snow #daenerys targeryan #jon x daenerys #aemond targaryen #lucerys valeryon #aemond x lucerys #reincarnation #star crossed lovers #doomed love #eternal recurrence #aelora targaryen #aelor targaryen #baelor breakspear #maekar targaryen #house targaryen

[eldritch-macabre]

SPOILER ALERT: Only read this article AFTER you have seen the season finale of True Detective: Night Country.

#true detective #true detective night country #night country #time is a flat circle #eternal recurrence

[blackswaneuroparedux]

There is a theory which states that if ever for any reason anyone discovers what exactly the Universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another that states that this has already happened.

- Douglas Adams

The idea of eternal return or eternal recurrence has existed in various forms since antiquity. Put simply, it's the theory that existence recurs in an infinite cycle as energy and matter transform over time. In ancient Greece, the Stoics believed that the universe went through repeating stages of transformation similar to those found in the "wheel of time" of Hinduism and Buddhism.

Such ideas of cyclical time later fell out of fashion, especially in the West, with the rise of Christianity. One notable exception is found in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), a 19th-century German thinker who was known for his unconventional approach to philosophy. One of Nietzsche's most famous ideas is that of eternal recurrence, which appears in the penultimate section of his book The Gay Science.

The Gay Science is one of Nietzsche's most personal works, collecting not only his philosophical reflections but also a number of poems, aphorisms, and songs. The idea of eternal recurrence—which Nietzsche presents as a sort of thought experiment—appears in Aphorism 341, "The Greatest Weight":

"What, if some day 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 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 to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence—even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!'

"Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your 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.' If this thought gained possession of you, it would change you as you are or perhaps crush you. The question in each and every thing, 'Do you desire this once more and innumerable times more?' would lie upon your actions as the greatest weight. Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life?"

Nietzsche reported that this thought came to him suddenly one day in August 1881 while he was taking a walk along a lake in Switzerland. After introducing the idea at the end of The Gay Science, he made it one of the fundamental concepts of his next work, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Zarathustra, the prophet-like figure who proclaims Nietzsche’s teachings in this volume, is at first reluctant to articulate the idea, even to himself. Eventually, though, he proclaims that eternal recurrence is a joyful truth, one that should be embraced by anyone who lives life to the fullest.

Oddly enough, eternal recurrence doesn't figure too prominently into any of the works Nietzsche published after Thus Spoke Zarathustra. However, there is a section dedicated to the idea in The Will to Power, a collection of notes published by Nietzsche’s sister Elizabeth in 1901. In the passage, Nietzsche seems to seriously entertain the possibility that the doctrine is literally true. It is significant, however, that the philosopher never insists on the idea's literal truth in any of his other published writings. Rather, he presents eternal recurrence as a sort of thought experiment, a test of one's attitude toward life.

Nietzsche's philosophy is concerned with questions about freedom, action, and will. In presenting the idea of eternal recurrence, he asks us not to take the idea as truth but to ask ourselves what we would do if the idea were true. He assumes that our first reaction would be utter despair: the human condition is tragic; life contains much suffering; the thought that one must relive it all an infinite number of times seems terrible.

But then he imagines a different reaction. Suppose we could welcome the news, embrace it as something that we desire? That, says Nietzsche, would be the ultimate expression of a life-affirming attitude: to want this life, with all its pain and boredom and frustration, again and again. This thought connects with the dominant theme of Book IV of The Gay Science, which is the importance of being a “yea-sayer,” a life-affirmer, and of embracing amor fati (love of one’s fate).

This is also how the idea is presented in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Zarathustra’s being able to embrace eternal recurrence is the ultimate expression of his love for life and his desire to remain “faithful to the earth.” Perhaps this would be the response of the "Übermnesch" or "Overman" who Zarathustra anticipates as a higher kind of human being. The contrast here is with religions like Christianity, which see this world as inferior, this life as mere preparation for a better life in paradise. Eternal recurrence thus offers a notion of immortality counter to the one proposed by Christianity.

Of all the ideas Nietzsche grappled with and put forward with such acute intelligence and brilliance, most philosophers are apt to give his notion of Eternal Recurrence a short thrift or quitely hush it under the nearest Persian rug in their study room.

Not only is it one of the philosopher’s weakest and most unconvincing theses, it is the one that sits in opposition to nearly everything else he wrote. For Nietzsche, despite his writing appearing wistful and gothic Romantic, was essentially an empiricist. He had no time for the dualism of Plato and only a fleeting but unconvinced interest in Kantian metaphysical idling about what lay beyond the tangible world. Nietzsche wrote that all there was for sure was the here and now.

This is exactly why he was not a militant atheist in the way we understand the expression today. He felt no need to concern himself with the veracity of Christianity’s claims about the afterlife, something we cannot be sure about. He seldom railed against the theological intricacies of Christianity or the truth claims of religion because to him the only thing that mattered was how religion affected us. He objected to Christianity because he saw it as nihilist and life-negating. Or rather he rebelled against the 19th Century practice of what the church had become would be more accurate account. It taught people to be meek, humble and to accept their lot. Nietzsche was an empiricist in that he wanted people to fulfil their life in the here and now, something that Christianity was hostile to.

Yet Nietzsche’s eternal recurrence belongs strangely to the realm of metaphysics and dualism. Its fatalism and determinism contradicts Nietzsche’s exhortation for each of us to become our own masters and to become who we truly are. While he did not believe in free will, he did believe that the Übermensch could harness and master the forces of his inner ‘will to power’. Contrarily, the eternal recurrence condemns us to history and supernatural fate. The notion of ‘eternal recurrence’ reeks too much of his youthful dalliance with Schopenhauerian metaphysics.

Is there anyting redeeming about Nietzsche’s fantastical notions of Eternal Recurrence? I think so.

Christian scholars are not alone with regard to giving weight to our daily life decisions as having significant eternal outcomes. Nietzsche, on the other hand, chooses to suggest our decisions in this life have weight because how we choose to live today will be replayed over and over again unto eternity.

Of course it’s a very unusual perspective in some respects, a variant on reincarnation, which also has us returning indefinitely, but in differing capacities. Scholars have argued whether the idea is meant as a serious conjecture or a concept to make us more thoughtful about our behaviour here and now.

I prefer to charitably believe Nietzsche’s sole intent with this concept of eternal recurrence was to get us plugged in to the significance of our acts. To paraphrase in modern vernacular, to live each day with greater mindfulness.

His was a brilliant mind, but as far as I am aware he does not offer a supporting argument for the notion proposed. It is a certainty that he understood that even if we ourselves were recurring, our circumstances would not be, for times change, culture changes, history is unfolding all around us.

Nietzsche then asks us: What about you? How do you go about living more purposefully and mindfully? What would you do differently if you were knew this day would be an eternally recurring experience?

Dare we have an answer?

#nietzsche #friedrich nietzsche #quote #philosophy #wit #funny #comic #culture #eternal recurrence #douglas adams

[blueheartbooks]

Embracing Nietzschean Philosophy: Exploring "Thus Spake Zarathustra"

Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None" is a profound and provocative work that challenges conventional beliefs and invites readers to reexamine their values and assumptions about life, morality, and the human condition. Originally published in 1883, this philosophical masterpiece explores themes such as the death of God, the eternal recurrence, the will to power, and the Ubermensch (or "overman"), presenting Nietzsche's vision of a new way of thinking and living in the modern world.

At the heart of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" is the character of Zarathustra, a fictionalized version of the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster, who descends from his mountain retreat to share his wisdom with humanity. Through a series of discourses, parables, and aphorisms, Zarathustra challenges his listeners to transcend their limitations, embrace their innermost desires, and strive for self-mastery and self-overcoming. Nietzsche's use of allegory and metaphor imbues the text with richness and depth, inviting readers to engage with its philosophical themes on multiple levels.

One of the most striking features of "Thus Spake Zarathustra" is its lyrical and poetic style, which sets it apart from Nietzsche's more academic works. Translated by Thomas Common, the text retains much of its original beauty and power, capturing Nietzsche's philosophical insights with clarity and elegance. Common's translation allows readers to immerse themselves in Nietzsche's thought-provoking ideas and experience the full force of his rhetorical flourishes and linguistic innovations.

Moreover, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" is notable for its critique of traditional morality and religion, which Nietzsche argues have stifled human potential and constrained individual freedom. Through Zarathustra's teachings, Nietzsche advocates for a radical revaluation of all values, urging readers to embrace a more expansive and life-affirming ethos that celebrates creativity, authenticity, and self-expression. Nietzsche's rejection of conventional norms and his embrace of existential freedom continue to resonate with readers today, inspiring countless individuals to question authority and forge their own path in life.

In addition to its philosophical depth and literary merit, "Thus Spake Zarathustra" has had a profound impact on art, literature, and culture, influencing thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Friedrich Engels, as well as artists, musicians, and writers from around the world. Its themes of self-discovery, self-transcendence, and the pursuit of meaning continue to inspire and challenge readers to this day, making "Thus Spake Zarathustra" a timeless classic that speaks to the eternal quest for wisdom and self-realization.

In conclusion, "Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None" by Friedrich Nietzsche, translated by Thomas Common, is a thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating work that continues to captivate readers with its profound insights, poetic language, and revolutionary ideas. Nietzsche's vision of the Ubermensch and his call to embrace the fullness of life remain as relevant today as they were when the book was first published, offering a powerful antidote to the nihilism and despair of the modern age.

Friedrich Nietzsche's "Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None" is available in Amazon in paperback 23.99$ and hardcover 29.99$ editions.

Number of pages: 471

Language: English

Rating: 11/10                                           

Link of the book!

Review By: King's Cat

#Thus Spake Zarathustra #Friedrich Nietzsche #Philosophy #Existentialism #Ubermensch #Overman #Will to power #Nihilism #Death of God #Eternal recurrence #Morality #Individualism #Self-overcoming #Self-mastery #Transcendence #Human condition #Spiritual liberation #Life affirmation #Existential freedom #Philosophy of life #Ethics #Individual autonomy #Nietzschean philosophy #Self-discovery #Self-realization #Human potential #Radical revaluation #Authenticity #Self-expression #Literary classic

[laku-incarnate]

#Nietzsche #Friedrich Nietzsche #Beyond Good and Evil #Beyond Naughty and Nice #Christmas #Santa Claus #Ubermensch #eternal recurrence #ressentiment #philosophy #German philosophy #moustache #Hegel #Foucault #Habermas #Ho Ho Ho #Continental philosophy #Genealogy #Gay Science #Zarathustra #pun #Penguin Classics #penguins #naughty #nice

[drdamiang]

RETURN

RETURN

I rent a

flower

by the

hour

get my fill

before

petals fade, colour

drains

loss

of shape

take it back

before

expiration

get good money

for time

not

exhausted

refund in

my pocket as

eternal

return.

#poem #poetry #eternal recurrence #organic #absurd #capitism #time #Nietzsche

[funeral]

Our souls are deathless, and ever, when they have left their former seat, do they live in new abodes and dwell in the bodies that have received them.

Ovid, Metamorphoses

#ovid #quotes #eternal recurrence #poetry

[galahadwilder]

I dreamed a new world last night. A world perfect for a D&D campaign.

(Feel free to ask questions or note additions!)

The known world was entirely inside a continent-sized impact crater, or maybe a world-sized one. Nobody had ever left the crater, because the walls were sheer cliffs, so high that no spell of flight would ever be able to reach the top without expiring, and nobody would be able to climb them without suffocating as the air got too thin. There was one way up, an upwards stair shaft at the northernmost point on the crater, leading to what we knew was the North Pole, but the land around the shaft was inhospitable ice filled with monsters and only a handful of people had ever been able to reach the bottom of the steps. Even then, climbing it would take months, the stair shaft itself was filled with monsters as well, and no group had ever survived the climb.

At the top of this shaft, unknown to anyone, lived the Archdemon of Time, who controlled the flow of all time within the world. It was impossible to reach him within the shaft, to reach the top, unless the world within the crater was ending and the stars were already falling en masse toward the earth. The stairs were an apocalypse escape hatch, nothing more, and there was no guarantee that the world outside the crater was even survivable by humans anyway.

One sign of this lack of survivability was an invasive plant from outside the crater: the Green Glow. It was a vivid, almost neon green moss that spread through water, choking water sources, infecting the bodily fluids of animals and turning them into servants obsessed with spreading it. It turned ecosystems into more of itself, entire fields of nothing but moss and moss-covered things that had once been creatures, and everyone knew that if it were able to spread to the inland sea to the north, surrounding the icy land of the shaft, then it would infect the whole sea and immediately become unstoppable, and end the world. It could not be starved or harmed—only fire could hurt it, and even then it was resistant.

There was natural weather, but the climate was not determined by the atmospheric conditions. Rather, there were areas where the boundary between our plane and the elemental planes were thin, and the climate in those places would be dominated by the activity of the elemental pole at the center. Places surrounding a pole of fire would be hot, sometimes deadly so; poles of water would be surrounded by rainforests or ice fields; poles of air brought cold. But there were elemental planes of bizarre elements as well, leading to at least one area overlapping the pole of clockwork where life integrated gears, where the flowers were made of petals of gently rotating, interlocked, and sharp gears and metal teeth. Spending too long in one of these clockwork lands would result in being overtaken by the gears—if you got too close to the pole, vast gears would crush you or a preponderance of small ones would tear you apart, and if you lived within the sphere of influence of the clockwork pole for too long your biology would begin to turn to clockwork as well, your emotions and individuality fading without your notice as you joined the Great Machine.

The gods of this world were fatalistic and cynical—they could not leave the crater either, and its walls enforced the boundaries of their knowledge and their power. One—ostensibly a god of cosmic balance and the night sky—initiated the apocalypse by dropping the stars from the sky by the thousands onto all that lived within the crater, not because she wanted to, but because it was inevitable, and thus any endeavor made before the sky fell was pointless. Why not end it all now, if nothing before the end mattered? (No other gods could gainsay her—they lacked the power, or the will, to stop her, and she killed most of them before enacting her plan anyway.) The only way to survive her plan was to forge a path to the shaft at the north and make a desperate escape run to the lip of the crater, where the demon of time waited in secret.

The apocalypse was not the end, though. Never the end. Because once it was done, the demon—who outpowered the gods—would rewind time to before the stars began to fall, change one or two variables, to watch history die all over again and laugh with glee as humanity failed to escape another cycle.

I was the first person to make it out in many thousands of cycles, but I never got to see what was beyond the crater before time was rewound and I found myself back in the crater with no memory of the apocalypse that had transpired.

#original content #worldbuilding #apocalypse #fatalism #eternal recurrence #time as a cycle

[tagitables]

6 November 2023, 0252 AM

To eternal recurrence ! ☀️

Love Philosophy 💛

#tagitables #philosophy #eternal recurrence #space #time #space-time #physics #quantum physics #metaphysics #this is to you wittgenstein #:)

[pettybourgeoisblues]

just saw a post of a reddit screenshot about depression. don't want to reblog it because I want to be negative about it, which isn't really the vibe. But.

The post was the OP asking the question "does depression reveal the truth of reality?" like does living really just suck? and his full statement was cut off. The image was really just that of a comment where someone's like "no dumbass, your brain is literally broken."

But I'm not so sure about that. The other day I saw someone assert that suffering was the human condition. As usual, I first balked at those words but then considered it and agreed (In the past I would have just agreed, but without truly understanding). As someone who has struggled with depression, I do believe that life entails suffering, and that is the problem we are faced with. You can blame that on my brain, but its my brain. You can't deny my personal experience just cause my brain's a little fucked up.

So, dismissing the depressive mindset out of hand rubs me the wrong way. It conflicts with my worldview and experience. I have experienced immense suffering. Not so much materially mind you; thankfully I have a fair enough amount of privilege, but the levels of suffering my brain or mind has reached is ungodly. I cannot dismiss that. I have experienced it directly. I have looked at the world and seen the misery that takes place and has taken place and will take place and I have felt it, or at least as much as I possibly can and it is hell.

But I have also found its equal (or greater than), opposite, joy (note: this is the dichotomy of euphoria/dysphoria). Either greater than because there is actually more joy in the world, or, as I tend to believe, joy, by its very nature always overpowers sorrow. The smallest moment of great joy abolishes and makes worth the deepest sorrow, no matter how prolonged.

This is basically the implication of Nietzsche's demon of eternal return. The one that comes on the loneliest night and says that when you die, your life simply starts over again, but you can't do anything to change it. Do you wail and gnash your teeth at this curse, having experienced the deepest sorrow, rejecting life? Or do you hail this demon as a god, knowing you will experience great and greater joy, again and again and again, vowing to live a life worth living. To embrace convalescence, the great noontide, etc. etc. This is easy to do once you have experienced the greatest of joys.

Is it possible to experience sorrow just as deep to abolish joy? Yes. But again, that doesn't matter because it is temporary. Great joy is temporary too, but since joy will always be better than sorrow to us, that just doesn't matter. The mere fact that joy exists and we can experience it makes life worth living.

Theoretically, if someone was incapable of experiencing such joy, than their life would not be worth living. But I think at some point, anyone can. The post itself even points out that measures can be taken to relieve depression, affirming this.

I also take some issue with the total dismissal of a depressive worldview. By negating the statement "existence is bad" you are more or less asserting the opposite. It's not stated explicitly, but replying with "your brain is just broken and therefore your worldview is too", it at the very least is saying that "existence isn't bad;" you aren't supposed to feel that way, you are experiencing the world wrong, and you are wrong. But that doesn't automatically mean it is good, either. Feel free to call me a nihilist, but one should reject the absolutization of such value judgements. Existence merely is. We decide how we feel about it; those feelings are subjective. The real question is, which is the best judgement to make? I think the answer to that is clear.

So is existence bad? Is it good? It is neither and it is both. But the simple fact that it can be good is the only thing that matters, so focus on joy. This is the superior view. Depression doesn't give you the wrong answer per se, just the inferior one.

#depression #nietzsche #philosophy #i guess #eternal return #eternal recurrence #eternal recurrence of the same #i find philosophytube's message to her fellow cosmonauts of “I know how you feel” (read: you are not alone) to be the most compelling #solidarity sure as hell sounds a lot better than “you're just broken” #it's called meeting people where they're at #“you just need to fix your brain” is little different than “have you tried exercising?” “just stop being depressed” #I say “hold on love” #the best may yet come #then all will be clear

[tmarshconnors]

“Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.”

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher, prose poet, and cultural critic.

Born: 15 October 1844, Röcken, Lützen, Germany

Died: 25 August 1900, Weimar, Germany

#Philosopher #Existentialism #Nihilism #Ethics #Will to power #Übermensch (Superman) #Eternal recurrence #Amor fati (Love of fate) #Genealogy of morals #Beyond good and evil #Dionysian/Apollonian #Critique of religion #Truth and knowledge #The death of God #Perspectivism #Master-slave morality #Art and aesthetics #Human nature #Individualism #Free will #today on tumblr #quoteoftheday

[darthruaky]

- eternal recurrence -

#sunset #in the mood of #stoicism #zeno #nietzsche #eternal recurrence #eternal return