From social philosophy to sociology: The dialectic of nihilism and social affirmation in Nietzsche's thought

This dissertation explores how, despite the fact that in the last two decades growing attention has been given to Friedrich Nietzsche's prism of social and philosophical thought, his uniquely sociological orientation has generally been excluded from the discipline of sociology. Although Nietzsche has been acknowledged as a primary influence for classical and contemporary sociologists such as Weber, Simmel, Adorno, and Foucault, there is no Nietzschean sociology. Rather, Weberian, Durkheimian, and Marxian sociology continue to dominate the discipline, in what we call the sociological project. This dissertation explores several reasons why Nietzsche is not considered part of the sociological canons, even though his work contains genuine sociological insights and has exercised profound influence on what is considered to be classical or traditional sociology. The apparent exclusion of his work is attributed partly to the question of his style---Nietzsche has often been reduced to "style," thereby limiting his contribution to sociology. By identifying patterns in Nietzsche's corpus which comprise genuinely sociological concepts and methods of inquiry, we methodically construct an anti-sociology especially suited to understanding the present phase of modernity and the rise of the nihilistic forces that increasingly shape social life. We argue that Nietzsche has a clear and distinct method of social inquiry, grounded in practical research techniques and containing a sustained dialogue with western philosophical traditions that also form the theoretical foundations of modern sociology. The veritable explosion of scholarship on Nietzsche of late is testament to his ongoing importance. Nevertheless, within this scholarship there is still a tendency to focus on Nietzsche as a philosopher rather than a sociologist. This dissertation provides a sociological reading of Nietzsche by setting out standard areas of sociological inquiry: culture, society, politics, history, law, and justice, and identifying the anti-sociological contributions Nietzsche has made to each of them. In particular the dissertation emphasizes how Nietzsche's negative critique of the nihilistic aspects of modern society is actually an affirmation of human life, thereby constituting an original critical theory of society that we term misobionism.