Neoliberal thinkers rejected natural-science methods in social knowledge because inner consciousness is inaccessible

Evidence

During the Second World War, the polemical use of the term “scientism” by Hayek complemented Popper’s refutation of “historicist” doctrines, Polanyi’s defense of pure science, Lippmann’s call for the restoration of a “liberal science,” and Rougier’s dichotomy of doctrine and mystique. Each demonstrated that liberal principles were concomitant with the proper view of science while a purely instrumental conception served the goals of collectivist ideologies. … From varying angles, they all accused the application of the aims and methods of the natural sciences to power social change of usurping the mantle of science out of sheer intellectual error. The opacity of the “sense-data” in the social sciences made its methods and orientation different than those of the natural sciences, because it could only observe man’s actions—and their undesigned results—without accessing the inner realm of consciousness. Opinions, they believed, constituted the genuine “facts” of the social sciences. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 83

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general theme of anti-positivism in modern social thought, e.g. Austrian economics’ subjectivism and Schutzian phenomenology. — connects to: Neoliberalism defines interest so as to render false consciousness unintelligible — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1869; Empirical socio-economic research never gained a foothold in the neoliberal thought collective. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 338; Neoliberal philosophers rejected the idea that scientific method could directly shape social reform. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 64

Broader Connections

• Neoliberal philosophers rejected the idea that scientific method could directly shape social reform. #corroborates (0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 64