ABSTRACT
The eternal recurrence is the most enigmatic piece of Nietzsche's philosophy. Nietzsche was unquestionably one of the most provocative, puzzling and prophetic thinkers of the nineteenth century. The Use and Abuse of History is a call for transvaluation. The attitude of historicism, a scientific approach to history, must give way to a new scientific perspective, the perspective of The Gay Science with its doctrine of the eternal recurrence. In sum, the eternal recurrence of The Gay Science is the doctrine by which we storm the gates of heaven in order to create a new vision of time. The eternal recurrence reflects the nihilistic insights of historicism and deepens them. Where historicism affirms the scientific orientation toward being, the eternal recurrence recognizes that the death of God signals the end of science in the traditional sense. The optimism of The Gay Sdence is tempered somewhat in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.
