Early neoliberalism framed egalitarian socialism as a fallacy traceable to revolutionary rationalism

Evidence

Rougier’s real foe, however, was not so much rationalism as a philosophical system than as a political doctrine. He contended that the spirit and ideas of the French Revolution, originating in classical rationalism, had ended up “par une sorte de logique immanente” in egalitarian socialism. For Rougier, political principles merely represented useful conventions suggested by experience. Any philosophical attempt to naturalize or rationalize these axioms must employ a metaphysical discourse that is ultimately unsubstantiated. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 63

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes Hayek’s own ‘fatal conceit’ thesis that Enlightenment rationalism leads to socialism; shows diverse philosophical routes to the same political conclusion — the ‘fractured unity’ theme of this volume. — connects to: Logical positivism began as an egalitarian political and social program — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 59; Neoliberal epistemology drew on Poincaré’s conventionalism to attack socialist rationalism — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 62
• SEED: Angle: an essay tracing how the French Revolution became a shared enemy across otherwise divergent neoliberal thinkers (Rougier, Hayek, and the ordoliberals), showing how a single political bogeyman unified them.