Going back through my in-box, I see that I first introduced the subject in
the thread, Re: Eternal recurrence is a morally irresponsible doctrine, of
Fri, 18 Oct 1996, which was one in a series of responses to P. S. Rhodes'
contention that Nietzsche is to be blamed for the Holocaust, etc. The
argument revolved, largely, around the issue of whether ER had the effect of
composing a kind of reversed categorical imperative, etc. More recently, in
the thread, Nietzsche -claim to anti-universalism?, there was some talk
around and about the issue. It seems to me there were other posts that also
discussed this question, but I haven't been able to pin-point them.
The notion that the ER is to be construed as prescribing that we live each
action as though it were to be repeated ad infinitum is, it seems to me, a
kind of categorical imperative, for instance. My contention has been that ER
cannot be construed in this fashion, at least not on the basis of anything
Nietzsche has written.
Best,
Steve C.
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