Nietzsche's Core Concepts: Becoming, Eternal Recurrence, and Amor Fati

Nietzschean Philosophy: Becoming, Will to Power, and Eternal Recurrence

1. The Innocence of Becoming: Change and Reality

The concept of **Becoming** (remember **Heraclitus**), or change and dialectic, is entirely innocent, representing what has not yet been invested or changed by values. This process of becoming is the only reality—life itself, the history of humanity, this world that becomes, as there is no other world.

Platonic Stagnation vs. Dynamic Reality

Philosophers, due to their lack of historical sense, have mummified (preserving something dead as if it were alive) everything they touched, thus inventing the "highest concepts." This tendency is their *Egipticismo* (one of two idiosyncrasies).

According to philosophers, starting with Plato, what dies, changes, becomes, or ages constitutes objections and refutations of true reality. What does not become is, and what becomes is not. If we perceive what becomes, but not what *is*, then the senses deceive us. Therefore, Platonism dictates that we must dispose of the senses by maltreating and purifying them, thus getting rid of becoming and history.

The Child and Affirmation of Life

Nietzsche, however, embraces becoming as the turning point where innocence and reality reside. This is symbolized by the innocent child, who, after the **Three Metamorphoses** (camel, lion, child), establishes life values for the life that is becoming. This leads to the **Eternal Recurrence**—"a Ferris wheel that spins constantly"—a concept where everything repeats continuously. To live this life countless times and love the future is to return to love the past. This is the supreme affirmation of life, a holy saying of 'Yes' and 'Amen'.

As stated in *Thus Spake Zarathustra*:

"The child is innocence and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game, a wheel that moves by itself, a first movement, a holy saying yes."

2. Eternal Recurrence, Will to Power, and Amor Fati

The innocence of becoming, for Nietzsche, is synonymous with the **Will to Power**; both concepts underlie the doctrine of **Eternal Recurrence**.

The Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence

The **Eternal Recurrence** (linked to *Amor Fati* and **Chance**) is a 'Yes' to life so strong that it not only affirms the values of this earth but desires everything to repeat eternally. Nietzsche invokes Heraclitus:

"Everything passes, everything turns; the wheel of existence rolls forever."

The Eternal Recurrence is often called "the heaviest burden."

Amor Fati (Love of Fate)

The Eternal Recurrence is closely related to **Amor Fati** (Love of Fate)—the acceptance of what reality imposes on us every moment. This means not just enduring the most painful aspects, but loving them and striving to embellish them.

• "Not wanting anything more, or forward or back, that's my formula for greatness."
• "I always learn more; you need to see [life] as beautiful, and live as if everything is thinking back to repeat over and over. Sometimes you have to say why I want to be one of those who embellish things."

We must **say yes to life**. In every choice we make, we are assessing life itself. What will you choose: life or death? To these imposed facts, we must love them as beautiful, as they are necessary. (Nietzsche recognized terrible pains in his head, yet embraced this philosophy).

The Role of Chance

On the other side of *Amor Fati* is **Chance**, since we cannot know the determinants, the background, or what results were not determined. Man must be creative, but there are realities imposed on us in advance (*Amor Fati*). Yet, there is always the chance of the unexpected.

Nietzsche affirms this ultimate acceptance:

"Thus I willed it. So do I. So what I will want."