The walls of illusion crumble. Truth is but an unhealthy idee fixe, a will-o’-the-wisp we cling to, and the incredible energy invested in its quest only calls attention to the “terrible and questionable character of existence.”
Descartes’ methodological doubt reaches a climax with Nietzsche; instead of methodical doubt, he proposes methodical negation. All hopes and expectations which have comforted humanity from the beginning, all religious and philosophical paradigms, metanarratives, and myths have been found wanting.
The notion that an anthropomorphized creator with an interest in the events of this planet, a notion that for so long dominated the Western mythos, ceases to figure into serious cosmic inquiry. It is an idea that would be laughable if it were not so debilitating and degenerative. There is no reason to believe in life, no reason at all.
It is my good fortune that after a whole millennia of error and confusion I have rediscovered the way that leads to a Yes and a No. —The Will to Power, 54
The Will to Power is a philosophical description of the world of Dionysian flux, one without a specific historical location, somewhat a radically decentered and vibrant biological metaphor for history. The Übermensch is a prophetic projection, a fiction, an ideal type which human beings can attempt to strive towards; someone who would experience the Dionysian flux directly, but the experience of the Übermensch cannot be concretely described within our language. The Übermensch is probably is not a creature that exists in the Dionysian flux. The Eternal Recurrence is the expression of the affirmation of the Übermensch in a philosophical attitude.
Since language involves an unavoidable hypostatization, Nietzsche is pointing at something language cannot describe. If Nietzsche was not self-conscious of their fictive and inadequate status, the Eternal Recurrence would be an axiology and epistemology. Once we attempt to merge ourselves with the Dionysian flux, the realization of the Eternal Recurrence appears. This means there is no first or last time, no identity like “this is me,” no originals, no copies, no authentic text or proper meaning.
