@Humpleupagus @gav I can't speak as well on Schopenhauer but with Nietzsche the way I read eternal recurrence wasn't constant identical cycles but time being a closed, flat circle. It was originally a though experiment designed to ask if you would accept your life being the only one without any end or change. I might just be nitpicking but it's like death and rebirth happen in the same place and things simply continue, rather than a proper break in the cycle. He was sort of a determinist on things like this which is a huge distinction from Schopenhauer if I'm correct. I don't know if he ever came to properly believe it or if it remained a thought experiment though.