Neoliberalism fused philosophy of science and political economy against totalitarianism

Evidence

Faced with the scientific and rationalist optimism of the unity of science movement as well as much of Marxism, early neoliberals demarcated and defended a liberal science against progressive scientists who promoted science as the midwife of social change. Crucially, they developed a new theory of knowledge-in-society which fused together philosophy of science and political economy into a single set of hypotheses. In these debates, concerns about the role of science in society linked up with the most pressing political question of the day: the rise of fascism and totalitarianism. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 53

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to Popper’s critique of historicism and the closed society; connects to anti-totalitarian intellectual history. — connects to: Neoliberalism pivoted from the economy to the framework encasing it — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 88; Neoliberalism’s freedom ideology borrowed from fascist critics of liberalism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 234; Neoliberalism’s social theory is fundamentally epistemological, recoding freedom as instrumental to independent orders (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s social theory is fundamentally epistemological, recoding freedom as instrumental to independent orders #corroborates (0.80)
• Neoliberals tarred Third World redistribution schemes as totalitarian #exemplifies (0.80) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 427
• Neoliberals saw economic rights as a path toward totalitarianism #contradicts (0.72) — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market, 163