Reading Max Weber with Friedrich Nietzsche: The problem of "Methodology" in social sciences

Understanding the intellectual legacy of Max Weber, one of the founders of German sociology, whose methodological writings still define the basic framework of social sciences today, is to face the challenges that social sciences meets today in terms of their nature and self-understanding. This thesis, which attempts to interpret certain concepts of Weber's methodology together with Nietzsche's philosophy, aims not only to better understand Weber but also to make a diagnosis of the past and future of sociology. From this perspective, the study of the influences on Weber's life and work is ultimately a study of the beginnings and orientations of the social sciences - Nietzsche's influence on Weber should be seen and valued in this way. I have tried to show how Weber's conception of knowledge and science resembles Nietzsche's (the notion of "fiction" and the "ideal-type"); how Weber's view of the human condition is related to Nietzsche's ("disenchantment of the world" and "nihilism"); and what the moral imperatives of modern man mean for both thinkers in terms of science. Weber's positioning can undoubtedly be problematic and self-contradictory, but it is nevertheless impressive and essentially noble. Weber says that in this modern world, the future of which may mean "the extinction of all hope", there will be a moment when the person who is able to practise politics will somehow have to say "in spite of everything": Weber's view of the social sciences can be taken in the same way, because the purpose of all these methodological writings was to clear the conceptual territory for a methodology and epistemology that would be suitable for a disenchanted world. In this sense, when Weber's political side is considered, he may have seen the creation of a unique social science as his most important political act. Exactly what Weber's positioning was in this respect, the relation of this position to the influence of Nietzsche, the importance of this influence for social sciences today, and the validity of his conclusions are issues that need to be discussed further. We can say that Weber developed his methodology to a large extent in order to ensure that science protects itself by knowing its own limits. As we have emphasised elsewhere in this thesis, Weber's moral-political and epistemological goals, like Nietzsche's, seem to be deeply intertwined. Although Weber attached great importance to science, the position he defended was actually based on an understanding of science that could prevent it from dominating all spheres of life.