Hayek’s knowledge schema treats information as a disembodied good

Evidence

Furthermore, these aggregation systems themselves emerge willy-nilly through something resembling evolution, and not from the visions of some rational planner. Knowledge in this schema is frequently treated as though it were a disembodied “thing,” and consequently human progress comes from the accumulation of information at various technological sites, which then serve to convey the relevant stuff to its decentralized user base. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2102

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the core epistemological premise of Hayek’s price-theory — the treatment of knowledge as an exchangeable ‘thing’ rather than an embodied practice.
• XREF: connects to: Hayek’s epistemology denied others the holism his own vision required — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 242; Hayek’s market argument rests on an epistemology of dispersed tacit knowledge — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 72; Hayek saw the market as an unrepresentable knowledge network, not a contained machine — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 171 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals recast Hayek’s tacit knowledge into a commodified thing for scientific resonance #corroborates (0.85) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2162