STELIO DE CARVALHO NETO

Our aim is to verify the hypothesis that the Nietzschean doctrine of the eternal recurrence, in the way that it is given in "The heaviest weight", from "The gay science", has an apologetic function, and not a diagnosis function, as several lectures of Nietzsche seem to propound. This hypothesis was formulated at the end of our Master's research, while we were investigating which were the conditions for the turning from the "sick selfishness" to the "healthy selfishness", that is, the conditions for convalescence in the Nietzschean psychophysiology. We found that in this psychophysiology, convalescence is a prerogative of the "fundamentally healthy" bodies, bound to health. Them, the analogy between the idea of convalescence in the Nietzschean psychophysiology and the idea of conversion in Augustine's doctrine of grace was possible. To establish this analogy, we chose Blaise Pascal's interpretation of the doctrine of grace. This choice is justified by the fact that Nietzsche declares his love for Pascal and mention him in many passages of his works.