Neoliberalism reframed politics as an epistemological question of what can be known

Evidence

Neoliberalism was thus born out of a collision between the controversial importation of the methods and authority of the experimental sciences into politics on the one hand, and the acknowledgement of the social and political conditions for the discovery and justification of knowledge on the other. It made the pursuit of knowledge and truth a political question, and gave the question of social order an epistemological answer: what we can do depends ultimately on what we can know. Nevertheless, this proclivity for epistemological investigations did not imply a unity of views among neoliberals, nor that their conclusions were devoid of political motivations. Moreover, in their contention to reclaiming the mantle of science, neoliberals shared many premises with progressive scientists regarding the position and “function” of science in society. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 54

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader anti-caricature project — this reframes neoliberalism as an epistemic stance rather than mere market worship. — connects to: Under late capitalism, political questions become inseparable from theoretical ones — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 26; The unknowability of the world economy drove neoliberal federalist reform — Quinn Slobodian, Globalists: The End of Empire and the…, 77; Neoliberals weaponize performative ignorance to paralyze post-crisis response — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 40 (+18 more)

Broader Connections

• Neoliberalism’s social theory is fundamentally epistemological, recoding freedom as instrumental to independent orders #corroborates (0.90)
• Neoliberalism’s deliberate epistemic inconsistencies enabled its long-term success #expands (0.85)
• Neoliberal epistemology drew on Poincaré’s conventionalism to attack socialist rationalism #expands (0.80) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 62
• Neoliberalism’s appeal lies in an esoteric knowledge reserved for the Elect #expands (0.75) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2148
• Neoliberalism fused philosophy of science and political economy against totalitarianism #expands (0.75) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 53
• A homogeneous epistemological field enables political tactical uses of discourse #expands (0.72) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 223
• Neoliberals understood the organizational nature of knowledge better than their critics did #expands (0.72) — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 2117