The Eternal Return




What is the being of that which becomes, of that which neither starts nor finishes becoming? Returning is the being of that which becomes. "That everything recurs is the closest approximation of a world of becoming to a world of being - high point of the meditation".

It is not being that returns but rather the returning itself that constitutes being insofar as it is affirmed of becoming and of that which passes. It is not some one thing which returns but rather returning itself is the one thing which is affirmed of diversity or multiplicity.

In other words, identity in the eternal return does not describe the nature of that which returns but, on the contrary, the fact of returning for that which differs.

[Gilles Deleuze]
Nietzsche and Philosophy, p.48



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