Eternal Return and Periodical Time in the Stoics’ Philosophy
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According to the Stoics, at the end of a long period of time, the whole universe turns into fire. It completely disappears, with the exception of divine fire itself. Then, the universe is reborn under its previous form. This process repeats itself indefinitely. This doctrine of “everlasting recurrence” (an expression not employed by the Stoics themselves) encountered two difficulties: how could some events be prior to other ones, if they reproduce themselves after those posterior events? And how could the same individual reappear, if his very substance had been destroyed? The answer to the first question was presumably an interruption of time between two periods. The answer to the second was inseparable from a criterion of identity distinct from continuity of material substance and from unessential bodily characteristics.
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