By Ng Wee Loon
Introduction
Out of the many social thinkers and theorist that had contributed greatly to the field of sociology, this essay highlights Friederich Wilhelm Nietzsche. This essay will begin with a brief biography of Nietzsche, giving an account of his life and his works. From the works of Nietzsche, some of his concepts will be singled out and further discussed. By the discussion of his work, this essay will seek to explain why Nietzsche can be considered to be a social thinker. In the process, comparisons and associations will be made to some of his more recognized counterparts in the sociological field such as Max Weber, Emile Durkheim and Karl Marx. Using the differences and similarities observed in the works of Nietzsche with regards to the other thinkers, this essay will try to portray Nietzsche as a social thinker to a certain extent though not necessary a sociologist.
Biography
Friederich Nietzsche was born in Prussia in 1844 to a Lutheran minister. Coming from a well-to-do family, Nietzsche was enrolled into elite school and studied in the University of Bonn and Leipzig where he was introduced to the field of philology and subsequently went on to obtain professorship at the department of philology at the University of Basel in Switzerland at the young age of twenty-four. During this time he met Richard Wagner, a musician whose ideas he founded corresponded to those of his own. “Wagner’s music was an attack on the decadence of formalistic, regimented nineteenth-century civilization” and “for Nietzsche the theme meshed with a revolutionary possibility just emerging in his own scholarly studies”. Nietzsche had also served in the Prussian army in the Franco-Prussian War as a medical orderly. Close contact with the wounded and dead was to have repercussions on his health and consequently his works in the later part of his life. Poor health made Nietzsche resign from his work at the university and he was to have more time to focus on writing till he collapsed in 1888 and it was in this time that he wrote most of his works.
His writings
Friederich Nietzsche authored many published writings. Starting from his first book “The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music” to his last in 1888, his works included “¬¬¬¬The Gay Science”, “The Dawn”, “Beyond Good and Evil”, “The Antichrist”, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, “On the Genealogy of Morality” and others. In these books, Nietzsche expressed his views on culture, religion, morality, values, politics and society, among others.
On morality
“To be moral, to act in accordance with custom, to be ethical means to practise obedience towards a law or tradition established from old…. How the tradition has arisen is here a matter of indifference, and has in any kind of immanent categorical imperative; it is above all directed at the preservation of a community, a people…”
Nietzsche expressed in his book “Human, All Too Human”, his understanding of morality; that it is the adherence in behaviour, to established norms and traditions. These traditions are understood by him to be for the preservation of the community in which the individual in question belongs to. Laws and traditions are set by the people in a certain community for the good of the community and those members of this community are required to abide by these rules. These regulations therefore, become a set of social norms and exert pressure on the members of the community. Deviance from these social norms, in the case when they are established laws can result in punishment.
The behaviours of members of the given community are not out of their own free will but instead imposed upon them by the society that they belong to. In this light, we can understand that they are forced to act in a certain manner and they do so whether it is out of fear of punishment or out of preserving their community as Nietzsche sees it. Morality in this scenario is a social phenomenon. We can deduced that Nietzsche is looking at morality as a result of social pressures, that it is a social fact, “ideas, feelings and ways of behaving that possess the remarkable property of existing outside the consciousness of the individual” as interpreted by Emile Durkheim. This interpretation of morality by Nietzsche is therefore one of sociological basis and by this we can understand him as a social thinker.
On religion
Nietzsche’s views are in a way very similar to Karl Marx. First he sees the existence of 2 different classes in society, the oppressive masters and the oppressed slaves, and the revolt of the slaves as they try to establish the good morality. This morality, according to Nietzsche, was that of the Christian morality. Though the form of morality was different, the revolt of an oppressed class was nonetheless similar to Marx’s revolution of the proletariat class. More importantly, Nietzsche and Marx hold the same views with regards to religion. Marx was interested in “religion’s repressive, constraining, and exploitative qualities” and “they rationalise and defend the political and economic interests of the dominant class.” In Nietzsche’s view, the revolution set up a Christian society but this society did not result in the betterment of the people. Instead, in a Christian society, “suffering people were among the most precious possessions… because it was through them that others’ salvation could be ensured. They were to be given charities…” This is similar to Marx view of religion as Nietzsche sees the sustenance of these Christian values simply as a methods for politicians to bring themselves to power.
By drawing comparisons and parallels between Nietzsche and Karl Marx, this essay had attempted to show that Nietzsche had analysed religion from the sociological perspective. Just as Karl Marx, Nietzsche had viewed religion as a tool to affect the masses into unconscious submission. Through portraying values of the dominant class as religious values of the masses, religion is used to affect the masses into docile or obedient behaviours that the dominant class prefers. Otherwise, using religion as a way to improve the image of politicians as caring care-takers, the masses helps legitimise possible oppressive powers by bringing the politicians into government.
Nietzsche not as a social thinker
Looking at Nietzsche’s work, there seems to be no defined concept of the social. Instead, often, Nietzsche was more often concern with the individual rather the society. This is illustrated in the example of the field of existentialist philosophy, which Nietzsche had helped set off. Engaging his ideas of “nihilism”, existentialist rejects “all specialised academic metaphysics and epistemology that does not derive from an immediate sense of one’s own fully engaged life.” This projects instead a more psychological than sociological aspect of his work and helps de-engage him as a social thinker.
Conclusion
Friederich Nietzsche’s works have, since his death, gone on to affect academia in various fields. Still pertaining to sociology, he had “an immediate impact on Max Weber, alerting him to the role of the emotion-disciplining Christian work ethic in powering modern capitalist society and to the iron cage of bureaucracy that makes a slave morality appropriate for all.” While in psychology and philosophy, Nietzsche had gone on to influence thinkers such as Sigmund Freund and Alfred Adler. Despite the vast influence he has on others, Nietzsche interest was in philology and some of the most important parts of his ideas were that of “nihilism”, and “The Will” which was not discussed, are not definitely sociological. Yet the sociological aspect of some of his works cannot be neglected. What needs to be noted is that given the length of the paper, Nietzsche and his ideas cannot be fully analysed. Given the similarities he had with the other social thinkers, and the impact he had on social thinkers after him, Nietzsche can be, to a certain extent, considered a social thinker.
Bibliography
Collins, Randall and Makowsky, Michael. “The Discovery of Society”. New York: McGraw-Hill. 2005
Ferrante, Joan. “Sociology: A Global Perspective”. Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth. 2006
Hollingdale, R.J. “A Nietzsche Reader”. London: Penguin. 1977
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