Knight and Simons’s intellectual divergence by the mid-1940s loosened their personal bond.

Evidence

By the mid-1940s, Knight and Simons’s research had undergone unprecedented divergence, and not just because they were now located in separate departments. Knight, according to Simons, was “increasingly preoccupied with philosophy and philosophies, not to mention historians, theologians, and anthropologists, et al., and is not deeply interested in concrete problems of economic policy.” Partly because of the divarication that now characterized their intellectual relationship, their personal relationship by early 1946 had grown distant and impersonal. — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 726

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader Mont Pèlerin historiography on internal tensions among the Society’s founders — Knight’s turn to philosophy is often cited as cutting him off from the policy-oriented Chicago wing. — connects to: Henry Simons anchored Hayek’s Chicago network through his closeness to Hutchins — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 723