Climate change tests whether neoliberalism can reproduce its own conditions of existence

Evidence

The founding neoliberal group’s emphasis on the inviolability of the human and the epistemological baseline of human ignorance presents increasing difficulties for those who focus mainly if not exclusively on the maintenance of property rights, freedom of contract, and the praise-worthiness of endless competition. There are areas where neoliberalism appears to fail to reproduce the conditions on which its existence is based. Will the challenge of climate change and the depletion of natural resources lead to a modification of neoliberal thinking, or will the oscillating appeals to human ignorance and the superior wisdom of the market march capitalist civilization to its final extinction? Nine lives may be long but, at least theoretically, they are finite. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 46

Categorization

• QUESTION: Whether environmental limits will force actual doctrinal modification in neoliberal thought is an open question worth tracking through the chapters.
• SEED: Possible essay angle: the internal tension between property-rights absolutism and the epistemic humility (ignorance) doctrine that founded the Mont Pelerin project — which side wins under climate stress?