A Nietzsche Reader - Friedrich Nietzsche

I chose-out of the book "A Nietzsche Reader"- to write only about Nietzsche's view on life and life after death, because I find it very intruiging. Some aspects will appear very familiar and others out of the blue and it is exactly that what makes it so special.

Nietzsche's philosophy on life, the meaning of life and what comes after this life is written down mainly in ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA (ASZ) or Thus Speaketh Zarathustra. The central theme in Thus Speaketh Zarathustra is the Eternal Return of the Identical. It will soon become clear what is meant by this.

To understand Nietzsche's vision on life after death, I think it's important to know that he was strongly atheistic. His father was a preacher and his mother was from preacher family descent, and it was expected that Nietzsche would also become a preacher. So, he started his first year theology at university and the year after he became an atheist, and a radical one too (see his other work: ANTICHRIST). He despised every submittance to an ideal world in the form of a second world next to ours. In his GÖTZENDÄMMERUNG he deals with this subject in the text: "How the real word eventually became a tale". In a climactic form Nietzsche brings down the metaphysical idea of two worlds to leave us just with the only world we have, in his view, this world.

It is very common in religions, where people live their life in this world to earn their living in another world which is usually beyond perfect. Also in metaphysics there are commonly two worlds, one of which brings the other to unity, completeness or in other words: makes it perfect. Just think of Plato and the ideal world: Everything in this world was considered merely a fraction/ a shadow of what it really was in the ideal world. These two-partitions were highly disliked by Nietzsche in the sense that he saw it as a betrayal to this world. Why create a second world from which to spit at this world in disgust? According to Nietzsche this was a sign of weakness, he considered religious people and people claiming two worlds in general to be weak, to not be able to cope with this world, to be seeking support in some imaginary anchor point.
Nevertheless Nietzsche cannot be considered a nihilist, since he does not leave us with empty hands. He denies existence of a higher Entity in a higher world, but he offers an alternative at the same time, so in that respect he is not a nihilist.
Now let's go a bit more into detail on the alternative Nietzsche offers.

So, if there is only this world, what then is the use of this world and what follows this world according to Nietzsche?

What I'm about to say is very delicate material because in some posthumous letters it was found that Nietzsche did not himself believe in it and in other letters Nietzsche claims to be convinced it is truly so. So as to whether he really believed it himself or not, there is still some doubt.

According to the philosophy in ASZ our lives are ever-repeating and thus have a cyclic time pattern. This stands in contrast to the linear time pattern that is found in religious beliefs, but also in some atheistic beliefs claiming that death is the ultimate end.

This also stands in contrast to reincarnation (cf. hinduism) as it is not a return in a different form or in an enhanced life, but in one and the same life. Let's look at an excerpt from THE GAY SCIENCE:

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 time more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everthing unutterable 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 inumberable 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 to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?"

So, it becomes clear that to Nietzsche or at least to his philosophy it's not about coming back and improving your spirit, doing things better, not making the same mistakes again,...

It's about coming back in the exact same way as you are now, you'll make the same mistakes, you'll have the same nice moments, there won't be one single thing that has changed, everything will happen in the exact same way at the exact same time with the exact same consequences.

Nietzsche was convinced that little people would be able to cope with this idea, let alone grasp it and that is also why ASZ is subtitled: A book for all and none.

A book for all: because he saw it as a revelation, people had to be made conscious that they would return every time again and in the same way.

A book for none: because he thought few people would understand what he was pointing at and indeed initially few people understood ASZ.

This view on the life after from Nietzsche's perspective also brings along a certain way of living, namely: It is essential that a life be lived in the best possible kind of way and that all deeds are effected with the knowledge that they will be repeated an endless amount of times again.

Now my opinion on this philosophy is that I think it indeed stands out against other philosophies and has very original elements to it. At the same time I do reject it. If it would indeed be so that life is ever-repeating, I would find it hard to believe this repeat was just a coincidence. Coincidences are coincidences because they occur rarely and unexpected. If life would repeat itself everytime again, there would be regularity and regularity is a solid basis for scientists to base expecations upon. So, it would no longer be a coincidence and thus there would have to be a higher force in charge of the process of everlasting return and then rises the question: Why would some Entity let us repeat our lifes an endless times again in the same way? What's the use of that?