Nietzsche's Notebook of 1881: the Eternal Return of the Same Daniel
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Nietzsche’s notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same By Daniel Fidel Ferrer Nietzsche’s notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same / By Daniel Fidel Ferrer. ©2021 Daniel Fidel Ferrer. All rights reserved. Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND. Imprint 1.0 All Rights Reserved. droit d'auteur. Intended copies of this work can be used for research and teaching. No change in content and must include my name, Daniel Fidel Ferrer. This book first published in the year 2021 June. Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Kuhn von Verden Verlag. Includes bibliographical references. 1). Philosophy. 2). Metaphysics. 3). Philosophy, German. 4). Philosophy, German - - 19th century. 5). Philosophy, German and Greek Influences Metaphysics. 6). Nihilism (Philosophy). 7). Eternal return. I. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844- 1900. II. Ferrer, Daniel Fidel, 1952-.[Translation from German into English of Friedrich Nietzsche’s notes of 1881]. Acknowledgment and dedication Acknowledgment and dedication to the many German philosophers, that I have had the pleasure to read and of course disagree. For non-philosophical reasons, I am also dedicating this book to the people of Khambholaj Village in the Anand District of Gujarat State, India. To Dr. Alfred Denker and Dr. Dr. Holger Zaborowski for all things Heideggerian. No one has read this book for errors. As always, any errors, mistakes or oversights etc. are mine alone. Given a couple more years, I could improve this book. This is a philosophical translation and not a philological translation. Started many years ago in Michigan. In between texts and e-mails there is indeed time to do a few things. Mean while the world caught in the nightmare of Covid-19. I hope is gets contained. The jar has been opened (πίθος pithos); and now let Pandora give us hope (ἐλπίς, Elpis). Dedicated to all those people that have reduced the suffering and those dedicated people that have worked on the vaccines to provide for hope and light at the end of our nightmare. Suggest you start watching this list of films featuring time loops: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_featuring_time_loops] Nietzsche publisher’s advertisement in the back matter for Nietzsche’s collected writing, 19 volumes in 1922. Grossoktavausgabe Nietzsches Werke. Table of Contents Introduction and Preface (Pages: 1-11 ) Notebook: 11 = M III 1. Spring - Autumn 1881 11 [1 to 348] (Pages: 12-167 ) Nietzsche’s Notebooks in English: a Translator’s Introduction and Afterward (Pages: 168-183 ) The thought of the eternal return of the same (Pages: 184-197 ) Later Recapitulation note of 1888 14 [188] (Pages: 198-204 ) Rejection of the idea of eternal (Pages: 205 ) Translation of 4 notes by Nietzsche on Perspectivism (Pages: 206-210 ) Nietzsche gets some final few words (Pages: 211-216 ) Bibliographies (Pages: 217-236 ) Nietzsche’s notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same Introduction and Preface Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900). There are 106 separate physical notebooks (Notizheft) written by Nietzsche from 1870 to 1889 that exist today in the Nietzsche’ archives in Weimar, Germany. Some 8,000 pages by one account. Nachlass or the older spelling is “Nachlaß” (Nachlaß) which is literally, “after left’ or leftovers writings – after Nietzsche (1900) died. Nietzsche’s Nachlaß includes many more documents than just his notebooks, for example, essays, course lectures, letters, jotters, etc. [Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) has left us a Nachlass of over 200,000 pages]. The following is a translation of a single one of his notebooks dated 1881. In this notebook they are 348 notes. Nietzsche at the time was 36 years old. Many different topics are covered, however, this notebook is known for the first written notes on the Nietzsche’s thought (Lehre, doctrine) of the eternal return of the same. The description and importance of this particular ‘notebook’ of 1881 is clear from the authority of Paolo D'Iorio and I quote him: “M III 1 – such is the reference number of this in-octavo notebook kept in Weimar’s Goethe-Schiller archives – is made up of 160 pages, carefully covered in about 350 fragments belonging (except for a few rare exceptions) to the period from the spring to the fall of 1881 (DFGA/MIII-1). It is a secret notebook. Nietzsche did not use its content in any of the published works”. (Ibid. Paolo D'Iorio, page 62). More specific importance and amazing details from Paolo D’Iorio: “Colli and Montinari correctly wrote elsewhere that Nietzsche “had kept Notebook Page 1 of 240 Nietzsche’s notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same M III 1 with him for the entire final period of his creative activity” (cf. Colli- Montinari, Werke, 1972, p. 60). There is no doubt that the philosopher had the Notebook in his hands in the Fall of 1888, but it also bears signs of having been re- read in 1883, 1885 and during the Spring of 1888. For example, in the letter Gast from September 3rd 1883 (eKGWB/BVN-1883, 461), Nietzsche writes that he found again the first sketch of the eternal return. We can assert that there was another re-reading of this Notebook in the Summer of 1885 from the fact that eKGWB/NF-1885,36[15] from 1885 is a reworking of eKGWB/NF-1881,11[292], eKGWB/NF-1881,11[345] of 1881, eKGWB/NF1885,36[23] from 1885 of eKGWB/NF-1881,11[150], eKGWB/NF-1881,11[281] from 1881, eKGWB/NF- 1885,35[53] from 1885 of eKGWB/NF-1881,11[70] from 1881 and so on. Finally, the recapitulation of the doctrine in eKGWB/NF-1888, 14[188] of the spring 1888 is entirely derived from M III 1”. “The eternal return: genesis and interpretation” Paolo D'Iorio. - Lexicon Philosophicum: International Journal for the History of Texts and Ideas, #2. 2014. Background on the physical notebook. **“Composition dates from 21/03/1881 to 20/12/1881. Current: Shelf Mark 71/128 Large octavo notebook (16 x 23) bound in a brown cover. The notebook consists of 160 lined pages, written on working from the back of the notebook toward the front. The odd-numbered pages 159-3 have been paginated by Nietzsche as pages 1-78 and page 2 has been paginated by him as page 79. Page 133, however, has been accidentally skipped in this pagination. The notebook contains notes, aphorisms, plans and schemas from the period of The Gay Science. These notes were set to paper in the period between the spring and the autumn of 1881.” Page 2 of 240 Nietzsche’s notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same “KSA M III 1, Großoktavheft. 160 Seiten. Aufzeichnungen zu FW. Dispositionen und Fragmente. Frühjahr-Herbst 1881. Band 9:11”. 11 = M III 1. Frühjahr – Herbst 1881 11 = M III 1. Spring - Autumn 1881. **Footnote. Friedrich Nietzsche, Digital Facsimile Edition based on the original manuscripts and prints held at the Foundation of Weimar Classics, edited by Paolo D'Iorio. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Nachgelassene Fragmente Frühjahr 1881 bis Sommer 1882 [Frühjahr – Herbst 1881] Kritische Studienausgabe, KSA 09, pages 441-575. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe. (KGW) Friedrich Nietzsche: Werke. Abteilung 5: Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Abt.5, Bd.2, Idyllen aus Messina; Die fröhliche Wissenschaft; Nachgelassene Fragmente Frühjahr 1881 - Sommer 1882. Pages 339-473. KGW='V-2.339' to KGW=2.473'. Nietzsche Editions. Citation information: Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) usually used this earlier edition of Nietzsche works: Nietzsches Werke (Grossoktavausgabe) or Grossoktavausgabe Nietzsches Werke. (GOA). Leipzig: Kröner, 1901-1913. 19 v. in 19 cm. Vols. 9-14 have imprint: Leipzig, C. G. Naumann, 1901-1904. Examples from Heidegger are quotes that look like, 1881-82 (see XII, 18 f., number 35), CM see M lll I [197]. The edition that Heidegger owned: Unveröffentlichtes aus derZeit der Fröhlichen Wissenschaft und des Zarathustra (1881-1886). Neugestaltete Ausgabe. 3. Auflage Leipzig (Kröner) 1919. [MH GA 43, page 291. Heidegger’s library]. This notebook includes Nietzsche’s earliest notes about the thought: The Eternal Return of the Same”. This “heaviest weight” (größte Schwergewicht) or the most abysmal (profound, meinen abgründlichsten Gedanken!) (Part III, 13 of Thus Page 3 of 240 Nietzsche’s notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same Spoke Zarathustra, KSA 4, 271) weighed on Nietzsche and in these notes we get various versions of Nietzsche coming to grips with his thought. Nietzsche is trying to get it sorted out in his mind. What does it mean? What is the impact? At one place he calls it a Eine Wahrsagung (a divination, a prophecy). 1884 24 [1]. From Ecco Homo, Nietzsche writes about inspiration in general: “…a thought lights up in a flash, with necessity, without hesitation as to its form, - I never had any choice. A delight whose incredible tension sometimes triggers a burst of tears, sometimes automatically hurries your pace and sometimes slows it down; a perfect state of being outside yourself, with the most distinct consciousness of a host of subtle shudders and shiverings down to the tips of your toes; a profound joy…” Translation Judith Norman. We can image this for Nietzsche when the, “The basic conception of the work, the idea of eternal return, this highest formula of affirmation that can be achieved at all” (KSA 6: 335). Sometimes Nietzsche’s calls it a Lehre (doctrine, tenet, a teaching). Gedanken translated as thoughts (note: in this case not a single thought). What was Nietzsche’s state of mind in early August 1881? From a letter, he says: “The intensities of my feelings make me shiver and laugh - a couple of times I have not been able to leave the room for the ridiculous reason that my eyes were inflamed - what? Every time I wept too much the day before on my wanderings, not sentimental tears, but tears of exultation; while I sang and talked nonsense, filled with a new look that I have ahead of all people.” Page 4 of 240 Nietzsche’s notebook of 1881: The Eternal Return of the Same “This is no Switzerland, no Recoaro [trans note: Northern Italy], something completely different, at least something much more southern - I would have to go to the plateaus of Mexico on the calm ocean to find something similar (e.g.