The essay surveys the surprising intellectual affinities between Hayekian neoliberalism and the work of one of its leading critics, Philip Mirowski. One of the chief characteristics of neoliberalism, on Mirowski’s account, is its philosophical skepticism or antifoundationalism—its conviction that human beings can know very little about the economy and its hostility, therefore, to any economics that presents itself as scientific. Such skepticism and antiscientism are shared by most versions of critical theory and science and technology studies (STS), including the version of STS that Mirowski himself practices. Anyone holding Mirowski to his own argument is forced to conclude that he has surrendered to a few of neoliberalism’s central premises. The essay offers a few ways out of this impasse.
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February 1, 2019
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Research Article|
February 01 2019
Citation
Christian Thorne; Toward a Sociology of Nescience. boundary 2 1 February 2019; 46 (1): 55–71. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/01903659-7271339
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