Editing Eternal return (section)

{{Short description|Concept that the universe and all existence is perpetually recurring}}

{{Redirect|Eternal recurrence||Eternal Recurrence (disambiguation){{!}}Eternal Recurrence}}

{{For-multi|the idea proposed by Mircea Eliade|Eternal return (Eliade)|other uses}}

'''Eternal return''' (or '''eternal recurrence''') is a [[philosophy|philosophical]] concept which states that [[time]] repeats itself in an infinite loop, and that exactly the same events will continue to occur in exactly the same way, over and over again, for eternity.

In [[ancient Greece]], the concept of eternal return was most prominently associated with [[Empedocles]] and with [[Stoicism]], the school of philosophy founded by [[Zeno of Citium]]. The Stoics believed that the universe is periodically destroyed and reborn, and that each universe is exactly the same as the one before. This doctrine was fiercely criticised by [[Christianity|Christian]] authors such as [[Augustine]], who saw in it a fundamental denial of free will and of the possibility of salvation. The spread of Christianity therefore diminished classical theories of eternal return.

The concept was revived in the 19th century by German philosopher [[Friedrich Nietzsche]]. Having briefly presented the idea as a [[thought experiment]] in ''[[The Gay Science]]'', he explored it more thoroughly in his novel ''[[Thus Spoke Zarathustra]]'', in which the protagonist learns to overcome his horror of the thought of eternal return. It is not known whether Nietzsche believed in the literal truth of eternal return, or, if he did not, what he intended to demonstrate by it.

Nietzsche's ideas were subsequently taken up and re-interpreted by other writers, such as Russian [[Western esotericism|esotericist]] [[P. D. Ouspensky]], who argued that it was possible to break the cycle of return.