Editing Will to power (section)

== Will to power and eternal recurrence ==

Throughout the 1880s, in his notebooks, Nietzsche developed a theory of the [[Eternal return|"eternal recurrence of the same"]] and much speculation on the physical possibility of this idea and the mechanics of its actualization occur in his later notebooks. Here, the will to power as a potential physics is integrated with the postulated eternal recurrence. Taken literally as a theory for how things are, Nietzsche appears to imagine a physical universe of perpetual struggle and force that repeatedly completes its cycle and returns to the beginning.<ref>For discussion, see Whitlock, "Roger Boscovich, Benedict de Spinoza and Friedrich Nietzsche"; Moles, "Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence as Riemannian Cosmology"; Christa Davis Acampora, "Between Mechanism and Teleology: Will to Power and Nietzsche’s Gay 'Science{{'"}}, in ''Nietzsche & Science'', 171–188 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2004); Stack, "Nietzsche and Boscovich’s Natural Philosophy"; and Small "The Physics of Eternal Recurrence", in ''Nietzsche in Context'', 135–152.</ref>

Some scholars believe that Nietzsche used the concept of eternal recurrence metaphorically.  But others, such as Paul Loeb, have argued that "Nietzsche did indeed believe in the truth of cosmological eternal recurrence."<ref>Loeb, Paul, The Death of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 11.</ref> By either interpretation the acceptance of eternal recurrence raises the question of whether it could justify a trans-valuation of one's life, and be a necessary precursor to the overman in his/her perfect acceptance of all that is, for the love of life itself and [[amor fati]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2012}}