Neoliberals rejected treating economics as ironclad natural law
Evidence
We are far from the one-size-fits-all recipe that neoliberals are often accused of wielding. One need look no further than Hayek’s first MPS speech when he said that “Patents, in particular, are specially interesting from our point of view because they provide so clear an illustration of how it is necessary in all such instances not to apply a ready-made formula but to go back to the rationale of the market system and to decide for each class what the precise rights are to be which the government ought to protect.” One thinks here also of Milton Friedman’s description of economics as “a body of tentatively accepted generalizations” rather than ironclad laws of nature (and the neoliberal rejection of naturalism described in Beddeleem’s contribution to this volume). — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 194
Categorization
- XREF: Reinforces Beddeleem’s contribution on the neoliberal rejection of naturalism, noted in the text itself. — connects to: Neoliberals rejected ‘economy’ because it implied manageable collective ends. — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 21; Neoliberals rejected classical liberalism’s rationalism in favor of critical conventionalism. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 90; Neoliberalism served interests, never grounded in economic theory (+1 more)
Broader Connections
- Neoliberals rejected classical liberalism’s rationalism in favor of critical conventionalism.
#expands(0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 90 - Early neoliberals rejected empiricism for a critical conventionalism of knowledge.
#expands(0.85) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 90 - Neoliberalism served interests, never grounded in economic theory
#expands(0.72)