Heidegger's Eternal Recurrence and Being: an inquiry into Heidegger’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s most abysmal thought and its relation to the question of the meaning of Being

In this thesis I raise the following research question: how to reconcile Heidegger’s interpretation of eternal recurrence and his question of the meaning of Being? This thesis aims at arguing that the two fundamental thoughts, eternal recurrence and question of the meaning of Being, are for Heidegger compatible. Throughout the thesis, I repeatedly argue that Nietzsche’s communication of the thought of eternal return was at the fundamental level of Heidegger’s question of the meaning of Being, even though Nietzsche did not raise the question of Being explicitly. In order to demonstrate the latter point, I discuss five essential aspects of Heidegger’s interpretation: “the overman”, “the spirit of revenge”, “the possibility”, “the tragic”, and “the Moment”. The overman and the spirit of revenge point to similarity between eternal recurrence and question of Being, the possibility and the tragic prove that Heidegger viewed the two as compatible, and the Moment suggests how can this...Show moreIn this thesis I raise the following research question: how to reconcile Heidegger’s interpretation of eternal recurrence and his question of the meaning of Being? This thesis aims at arguing that the two fundamental thoughts, eternal recurrence and question of the meaning of Being, are for Heidegger compatible. Throughout the thesis, I repeatedly argue that Nietzsche’s communication of the thought of eternal return was at the fundamental level of Heidegger’s question of the meaning of Being, even though Nietzsche did not raise the question of Being explicitly. In order to demonstrate the latter point, I discuss five essential aspects of Heidegger’s interpretation: “the overman”, “the spirit of revenge”, “the possibility”, “the tragic”, and “the Moment”. The overman and the spirit of revenge point to similarity between eternal recurrence and question of Being, the possibility and the tragic prove that Heidegger viewed the two as compatible, and the Moment suggests how can this compatibility take place for Heidegger. The question of reconciling eternal recurrence and question of the meaning of Being has not been sufficiently addressed either in Heidegger’s studies or in the contemporary literature on Nietzsche. Numerous authors regard Heidegger’s interpretation of Nietzsche as severely limited, including Deleuze, who essentially argues that Nietzsche is a metaphysician of Becoming. However, on the contrary, I argue, in line with Derrida and Müller-Lauter, that there is much to be salvaged from Heidegger’s interpretation of Friedrich Nietzsche and his controversial thought of eternal return.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Heidegger's Eternal Recurrence and Being: an inquiry into Heidegger’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s most abysmal thought and its relation to the question of the meaning of Being