Anglo-American academics resist studying the 1,200-member Mont Pèlerin network as collective thought

Evidence

Alas, the devilish difficulty of diving in and following complex discussions among neoliberals—even if arbitrarily focusing on the Mont Pèlerin universe of roughly 1,200 card-carrying members—so far has proven quite a challenge. We set out to share the work, trying to divide it into manageable proportions, and think of the endeavor as ongoing teamwork by necessity. Scholars from the American academic universe in particular, for one reason or another, cannot take this project seriously. They seem to suggest something along the lines, “what I cannot do myself cannot be done,” or, “following a large crowd over many years of changing organization and subject matters is too complex, uneven and inconsistent, and therefore cannot be done properly.” The plotline of multivalent thought historically developed between a large number of interlocutors seems as outlandish to them as Hegel’s Geist. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 17

Categorization

• SEED: The author’s methodological complaint—that American scholars default to ‘a sympathetic single protagonist and simple plot arc’—is itself a compact essay angle on why intellectual history of movements gets avoided.
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberal network activity blurred boundaries between national schools of thought — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 559; Anglo-American empiricism blocks political connection-making by isolating individual facts; Anglo-American sociology defines itself by research methods rather than by theory (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Networked mutual influence, not heroic individuals, explains neoliberal thought formation #corroborates (0.80) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 13
• Anglo-American empiricism blocks political connection-making by isolating individual facts #expands (0.78)
• Neoliberal network activity blurred boundaries between national schools of thought #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 559
• Anglo-American sociology defines itself by research methods rather than by theory #expands (0.72)
• Raymond Aron bridged French liberalism and the neoliberal Mont Pelerin network #complicates (0.72) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 387