Reddit reviews Remaking Modernity: Politics, History, and Sociology (Politics, History, and Culture)

No, apologies necessary. Thanks for the thoughtful response. I can't respond to the heart of your comment at the moment, but I did want to suggest that Nietzsche's eternal recurrence is diametrically opposed to the Buddhist conception of samsara and was formulated precisely against what Nietzsche regarded as Buddhism's life-denying asceticism. In the fragments compiled in Will to Power Nietzsche writes,

>Everything becomes and recurs eternally—escape is impossible!—Supposing we could judge value, what follows? The idea of recurrence as a selective principle, in the service of strength (and barbarism!!). Ripeness of man for this idea. [§.1059/p. 545; italics in the original]

Whatever else we might glean from this, it is clear that Nietzsche seeks an affirmation of life within recurrence. He writes, "Means of enduring [the idea of the eternal recurrence]: the revaluation of all values." I'm not sure how or whether it pertains, but elsewhere Nietzsche describes the idea of eternals recurrence as if it were the best available attempt at thinking pure becoming:

>That everything recurs is the closest approximation of a world of becoming to a world of being: —high point of the meditation. [§.617/p. 330; italics in the original]

I think it is important to keep this in mind whenever discussing his idea of eternal recurrence.

I discovered the line from Pale Fire in Remaking Modernity.