In August 1881, at Sils-Maria in Switzerland (“6000 feet beyond man and time”), the solitary wanderer Nietzsche came upon a towering pyramidal rock that triggered in the philosopher’s mind his major idea of the eternal recurrence of the same. Nietzsche was elated over this concept of both metaphysical and ethical importance, as he saw it giving meaning and purpose to human existence in a godless but cyclical universe.

In his richly insightful book Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle, Pierre Klossowski offers a penetrating examination of the eternal recurrence in terms of Nietzsche’s complex biopsychological makeup that alternated between healthy lucidity and crushing delirium; especially the philosopher’s bouts of debilitating migraine attacks (among other illnesses). Of particular significance is chapter three, which focuses on Nietzsche’s pivotal experience at Sils-Maria and his subsequent interpretation of reality as the circular structure of eternal time. Klossowski also discusses Nietzsche’s ideas on art, science, and the process of organic creativity toward the future overman within the becoming of nature. Now available for the first time in an English translation, this book will benefit readers greatly with its captivating exploration into the life and vision of this profound but controversial thinker.