The Eternal Return is the enigmatic core of Nietzsche’s philosophy; some scholars see it as an ethical doctrine, some as a cosmological theory, and even more as the ramblings of a mad philosopher. Heidegger called it the end of metaphysics and Deleuze claims that modern philosophy is still playing out its consequences. The goal of this course is threefold: 1) To provide the context in order to understand what Nietzsche was attempting to do with the eternal return 2) What he seems to mean by the doctrine 3) and finally, what are its implications, both in the context of his thought, but also in philosophy as a whole.