In the philosophies of both Nietzsche and Foucault, there is a weariness of how science is produced, in contrast to the Weberian model of separation. The both contend that there is no research done just for the research’s own sake, but rather that the pursuit of knowledge is the pursuit of power at its most basic level. While Nietzsche seems fine with the pursuit of power, and even praises it on some level, Foucault’s observation of the pursuit of power is much more dire. Foucault distrusts power and associates it with negative connotations that those with power will remodel society into one that leads to human suffering. That is not to say that Nietzsche has a blind spot for the negative associations of power, but rather that of the two, Foucault is more squarely negative towards power while Nietzsche is more ambivalent.

Expanding on Foucault’s caution, one can see that when science is used to gain power, there are historically bad outcomes. This happened with the Eugenics movement, Social Darwinism, and the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. All of these claimed scientific knowledge, and even if the researchers started out with pure intentions, their research was then utilized by others that were not pure in their intentions, and in some cases the researchers themselves were sponsored to create studies that backed up their political philosophies.

In terms of how Nietzsche and Foucault fit in with my methodological approach, there is definitely a disconnect. My methodological approach seems to be the sort of project that this critique is directly aimed at, as I am pursuing an absolute truth about a social system so that we may better understand it. Both Nietzsche and Foucault may have problems with this because even though I do not necessarily conduct this research for a normative reason, there are still hints of it throughout my background and eventually, the research may end up being corrupted by some reader down the line. Granted, the research is limited towards only a few cases and in a social system that many may not think it geared towards the gain of power, but it can still apply at some level. Foucault and Nietzsche both would contend that my search for a truth behind the inner workings of metro systems is a folly, mainly because I aim to analyze the data given the context of future problems that we may face in cities–which they would claim are based on individual values. These values would benefit from the power that I wielded as the researcher of this study, and ultimately make at least Foucault very nervous. Despite this, I think that on the whole, there is really too great of a disconnect for me between my methodological approach and the critique offered by Foucault and Nietzsche for me to really worry about.