Neoliberalism defines interest so as to render false consciousness unintelligible

Evidence

92 “Neoliberalism figures interest as both a psychology that drives rational choices, and as the good achieved by those choices. Subjective and objective interests are thus rendered neatly compatible: questions of false consciousness on the one hand, or of a ‘real interest’ that exceeds what people can realize by means of price-taking choices on the other, are not so much answered as they are rendered unintelligible” (Mathiowetz, Appeals to Interest). — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 1869

Categorization

• XREF: This collapse of subjective and objective interest echoes the Milgrom private-judges reading on how institutions shape what counts as knowledge, and connects to the social-control trust literature. — connects to: Feigned ignorance of outcomes is structurally required for neoliberal order — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 276; Neoliberalism makes the market, not experts, the arbiter of truth — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 927; Neoliberal thinkers rejected natural-science methods in social knowledge because inner consciousness is inaccessible — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 83 (+1 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The move to define away the question of false consciousness is a core mechanism of the post-2008 resilience Mirowski’s reader is tracking—it preempts the critique at the conceptual level.

Broader Connections

• Feigned ignorance of outcomes is structurally required for neoliberal order #qualifies (0.75) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 276
• Neoliberal thinkers rejected natural-science methods in social knowledge because inner consciousness is inaccessible #complicates (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 83
• Neoliberalism makes the market, not experts, the arbiter of truth #expands (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 927
• Neoliberals restrict freedom to negative freedom to shield market epistemology from scrutiny #expands (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 169