ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Nietzsche's thought has entered the canon of political philosophy in an unsatisfactory manner, and that the relation between Nietzsche and political philosophy needs to be reconceived. It suggests that a strategy for doing so should follow from Nietzsche's philosophy of power, a critical ontology of practice focusing on the possibility of human agency in a historical world, and not from his overt political positions. The chapter claims that Nietzsche's politics follow from his philosophy only because he holds to several uncritical assumptions about politics in modern societies. Without these assumptions, the political implications of Nietzsche's philosophy turn out to be less narrow than his own political vision suggests. The chapter indicates the general nature of Nietzsche's project by sketching his conception of power as human agency.
