Nietzsche's eternal recurrence. New sources and new interpretation

• Grant number: 13/23928-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2014
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Oswaldo Giacoia Junior
• Grantee: Angelo Marinucci
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

By this project I intend to propose a new interpretation of Nietzsche's eternal recurrence. New sources, found by prof. Luca Crescenzi and myself, impose to reconsider in a new way the relation between free will and determinism in Nietzsche's thought. Starting from the reading of Du Bois-Reymond's speech "Die sieben Welträtsel", Nietzsche drops the laplacean determinism and introduces the idea of free will in his thought. The turning point of Nietzsche's philosophy is the renewed scientific controversy about determinism and free will around 1880. Scientists introduced the possibility of free will in nature from a mathematical and physical point o view. The elaboration of eternal recurrence shows Nietzsche's interest in this debate. The current interpretation states a continuity between eternal recurrence and determinism exposed by Nietzsche in "Human, all too human". The question is: if Nietzsche's thought is deterministic, why does Nietzsche decided to create Zarathustra or to write only about ethical and aesthetic problems after 1881? My work fits into veryinteresting development of Brazilian Nietzsche's research.