Philosophizing with a hammer? A critique of Mirowski's markomata informed by continental philosophy

Abstract: Mirowski''s justification for replacing the foundational principles of neoclassical economics – methodological individualism and rational choice theory – with a theoretical framework informed by cybernetics, information theory, and computational biology, is subject to a critique informed by the work of Karl Polanyi, Michel Foucault and Jürgen Habermas. Mirowski''s proposed alterative is called into question on the basis of two crucial weaknesses. First there is Mirowksi''s penchant for what Polanyi has called Laplacian reductionism. Second there is Mirowski''s inability to develop a comprehensive and consistent theory of evolutionary economics. Mirowski''s work is questioned in terms of what social theorists call the ‘structuration paradox’.