Market success is self-justifying for neoliberals, like natural selection.

Evidence

Hayek defines the radical freedom of the market by its indifference to all external limits and transcendental laws … The laws of the market rest on no pre-existent foundation: their very resilience serves as proof of concept, in the same way that the law of natural selection constantly proves or disproves the viability of chance mutations in nature. — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 921

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains the resilience concept as a self-justification mechanism borrowed from evolutionary biology.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does this self-referential justification make neoliberal claims empirically unfalsifiable, and how would Mirowski respond?
• XREF: connects to: Neoliberals marketed the market as natural by borrowing early evolutionary science metaphors — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making…, 2127; Neoliberalism’s activist stance contradicts its own claim that markets naturally triumph — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 202; Neoliberal competitiveness outpaces its communitarian moral underpinnings, fueling populism. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 33 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberals marketed the market as natural by borrowing early evolutionary science metaphors #expands (0.90) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2127
• Neoliberalism’s activist stance contradicts its own claim that markets naturally triumph #qualifies (0.80) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 202