FOLIO I · THINKER · GEN. 05 · N° 048

Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Works
19
Articles
79
Generation
5.
Portrait of Hans-Hermann HoppePortrait of Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Vortrag (Henrique Vicente, Flickr) (2011)Portrait of Hans-Hermann Hoppe: Hans-Hermann Hoppe, „Rockstar“ (2025, hanshoppe.com) (2025)
FOL. 05 · N° 048 · Hans-Hermann Hoppe
BIOGRAPHY

Life and Work

Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a native German who completed his dissertation in philosophy under Jürgen Habermas, went to the United States early on for his studies and, as a long-standing student of Murray N. Rothbard, eventually took over Rothbard's chair at the University of Nevada. With his Kritik der kausalwissenschaftlichen Sozialforschung (A Critique of Causal-Scientific Social Research, 1983), Hoppe made an important contribution to the refutation of empiricism and positivism. Causal-scientific social research, he argued, is logically impossible, because it is incompatible with the proposition that one can learn. Every scientist implicitly accepts this proposition as valid, and no one can dispute it in argument without falling into contradiction. Economics, therefore, cannot be an empirical social science, but must be understood as an a priori science of action. In A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (1989), Hoppe defined socialism (an institutionalized procedure of aggression against property) as a profoundly immoral social system, one that in no way corresponds to a "natural order". This basic idea was developed further in Democracy: The God That Failed (2001) and broadened into a fundamental and far-reaching critique of democracy. Hoppe wrote numerous books and articles on theoretical questions of the Austrians and on natural-law ethics, but also against the prevailing economic errors, with particular emphasis on "monetary theory" and "public goods". In 2006 he founded the Property and Freedom Society, a discussion forum committed to intellectual radicalism in the Mises-Rothbard tradition.
Metadata
2. September 1949
living
Generation 5
Life stations

Stations

  1. 1949
    1949
    Birth

    Born on 2 September 1949 in Peine.[1]

  2. ⁦1968–1974⁩
    ⁦1968–1974⁩
    Studies in Philosophy/Sociology/History/Economics— approximate

    Studies at Saarland University (Saarbrücken), Goethe University Frankfurt, and the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in philosophy, sociology, history and economics.[1]

  3. 1974
    1974
    Doctorate in Philosophy under Habermas

    Doctorate in philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt under Jürgen Habermas (1974).[1]

  4. ⁦1976–1978⁩
    ⁦1976–1978⁩
    Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan— approximate

    Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1976–1978).[1]

  5. 1981
    1981
    Habilitation in Frankfurt

    Habilitation in sociology and economics at Goethe University Frankfurt (1981).[1]

  6. ⁦1981–1985⁩
    ⁦1981–1985⁩
    Teaching at German Universities and Johns Hopkins (Bologna)— approximate

    Teaching at several German universities as well as at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center before moving to the United States.[1]

  7. 1983
    1983
    "Kritik der kausalwissenschaftlichen Sozialforschung" (Critique of Causal-Scientific Social Research)

    With "Kritik der kausalwissenschaftlichen Sozialforschung" (Critique of Causal-Scientific Social Research; 1983), Hoppe made a significant contribution to the refutation of empiricism and positivism. Causal-scientific social research, he argued, is logically impossible.

  8. 1986
    1986
    Move to the United States— inferred

    Went to the United States early for study purposes and became a longtime student of Murray N. Rothbard.

  9. ⁦1986–2008⁩
    ⁦1986–2008⁩
    Professorship, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

    From 1986, Professor of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), in close collaboration with Murray N. Rothbard. As a long-standing student, he took over the chair after Rothbard's death in 1995. Retired in 2008.[1]

  10. 1989
    1989
    "A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism"

    In "A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism" (1989), Hoppe defined socialism as an institutionalised procedure of aggression against property.

  11. 2001
    2001
    "Democracy: The God That Failed"

    With "Democracy: The God That Failed" (2001), Hoppe further developed his central idea and extended it with a fundamental critique of democracy.

  12. 2006
    2006
    Founding of the Property and Freedom Society

    In May 2006 in Bodrum (Turkey), founding of the Property and Freedom Society as a libertarian discussion forum committed to intellectual radicalism in the Mises-Rothbard tradition.[1]

Relationships

Influences

Influenced by · 3
  1. ⁦1969–1981⁩
    ⁦1969–1981⁩
    Jürgen Habermas⁦(1929–2026)⁩ · Frankfurter Schule

    Hoppe completed his dissertation in 1974 and his Habilitation in 1981 in the field of philosophy under Jürgen Habermas at the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main. In the years that followed he distanced himself decisively from the Frankfurt School and, with Argumentation Ethics, developed an a priori grounding of private property that takes up Habermas's discourse-pragmatic method but leads to opposite conclusions: according to Hoppe, every argumentative dispute presupposes exclusive ownership of one's own body and of scarce means. The argument is found centrally in “A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism” (1989) and “The Economics and Ethics of Private Property” (1993).[1]

  2. ⁦1986–1995⁩
    ⁦1986–1995⁩

    Hoppe went to the USA for the purpose of study and became a long-standing student of Murray N. Rothbard; he eventually took over his chair at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.[1]

  3. Karl-Otto Apel⁦(1922–2017)⁩ · Diskursethik

    Apel's discourse ethics shaped Hoppe's later Argumentation Ethics; Apel was a central philosophical point of reference during his Frankfurt years of study.[2]

Private seminar, colleagues, Mont Pèlerin · 1
  1. ⁦1986–1995⁩
    ⁦1986–1995⁩

    From 1986 Hoppe and Rothbard worked together at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; after Rothbard's death in 1995 Hoppe took over his chair.

Hans-Hermann Hoppe in the context of the School as a whole: five generations, their teacher-student lineages, circles and collegial ties.

SOURCES ON STATIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS13 citations · 3 sources
  • [2]Hoppe: A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (Argumentationsethik mit Apel-Bezug)
Topography

Places of Activity

CATALOGUE OF WORKS · CHRONOLOGICAL

The Books

1970s
1976
Handeln und Erkennen: Zur Kritik des Empirismus am Beispiel der Philosophie David Humes
OriginalGerman
1980s
1983
Hans-Hermann Hoppe argues that causal-scientific, predictive social research is logically impossible. At its core lies the demonstration that the claim to conduct causal research as a social scientist stands in contradiction to the a priori valid proposition, which cannot be disputed in argument, that human beings can learn. From this Hoppe draws two consequences: as an empirical discipline, social research can proceed only by reconstruction, in analogy to the grammar of a language; alongside it, an aprioristic science of action is possible, whose model is economics. The first chapter develops the impossibility thesis using the example of regression analysis and the constancy principle; the second grounds sociology as a reconstructive grammar of action; the third grounds economics as an a priori science and illustrates it through the marginal utility theorem, the law of returns, and business cycle theory. Hoppe explicitly builds on Mises and the Austrian School and engages with Popper, Hume, and Kant.
OriginalGerman
1987
In five self-contained studies and an appendix, Hans-Hermann Hoppe develops the thesis that normative theories of society can be rigorously justified and that the only justifiable order is individualist private-property anarchism, which Hoppe equates with a hundred-percent capitalism, or a pure Private Law Society. He argues that the existence of a state, even a liberal minimal state, can be justified neither morally nor economically, because it rests on coercive taxation. The argument is grounded in the principle of the exclusion of force and the right to original appropriation. The studies address the justifiability of norms, the theory of social welfare and welfare measurement, the foundations of property theory, and a theory of economic and state orders. In doing so, Hoppe engages with the tradition of political theory reaching from Hobbes to Nozick, with the theory of public goods, and with Hume's theory of property; the book appeared in 1987.
OriginalGerman
1989
Hans-Hermann Hoppe develops a systematic theory of socialism and capitalism on the basis of a theory of property. He defines socialism as institutionalised aggression against private property, and capitalism as a system founded on original appropriation and contractual exchange; real societies lie to varying degrees between the two poles. Building on the 'natural theory of property', the work analyses four varieties of socialism: the Russian (Marxist) style, the social-democratic redistributive style, the socialism of conservatism, and that of social engineering. For each it derives a relative impoverishment effect. The argument is largely deductive, with illustrative comparisons such as West and East Germany; separate chapters are devoted to the ethical justification of capitalism, the social-psychological theory of the state, and the problems of monopoly and public goods. The book names Murray N. Rothbard and Ludwig von Mises in particular as its declared points of reference.
OriginalEnglish
1990s
1993
Fifteen essays by Hans-Hermann Hoppe on the economics and philosophy of private property, dedicated to his teacher Murray N. Rothbard. The economic part covers the theory of public goods, taxation, money and banking, Marxist and Austrian class analysis, a Misesian critique of Keynes, and the question of the possibility and consequences of fiat money. The philosophical part establishes praxeology as the foundation of epistemology, criticises causal-scientific methods in the social sciences, and develops an a priori justification of private property grounded in argumentation ethics. Throughout, Hoppe argues deductively from the concept of action, in the tradition of Mises and Rothbard. An appendix replies to four critical responses to his argumentation ethics. The essays appeared previously as individual pieces, including in the Journal of Libertarian Studies and the Review of Austrian Economics.
OriginalEnglish
1995
Economic Science and the Austrian Method
OriginalEnglish
Further editions
  • Ökonomik als Wissenschaft und die Methode der Österreichischen Schule
    OriginalGerman
1996
Ludwig von Mises' Die Gemeinwirtschaft Vademecum zu einem Klassiker
OriginalGerman
2000s
2001
In Democracy: The God That Failed, Hans-Hermann Hoppe advances a revisionist comparison of monarchy, democracy, and a stateless "natural order" grounded in private property. Reconstructing monarchy as privately owned government and democracy as publicly owned government, he argues that the historic transition from kings to elected rulers raised time preference, encouraged capital consumption, and amounts to civilizational decline rather than progress. The thirteen self-contained chapters, most developed from conference papers, treat taxation, debt, inflation, war, redistribution, centralization and secession, socialism and privatization, immigration and free trade, conservatism and libertarianism, and the impossibility of limited government. Throughout, Hoppe draws explicitly on Austrian economic theory and on Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard, presenting the argument as praxeological rather than empirical. He proposes secession, privatization, and the delegitimation of democratic rule as the route toward a private law society.
OriginalEnglish
Further editions
2003
This collection of essays challenges two widely held assumptions: that every monopoly harms consumers, and that the production of security must nonetheless remain reserved to the state monopoly. The eleven essays argue that the second claim is false and that protection, like any other good, can be produced privately and competitively. Building on Gustave de Molinari, to whom the volume is dedicated, and on Murray Rothbard, the authors address the historicity of the state, monarchy and democracy in relation to war, nuclear proliferation, mercenaries, militias and guerrillas, privateering in naval warfare, as well as insurance models of private defence and the role of secession. The argument combines Austrian economics, public choice theory and historical case studies, and is directed against the Hobbesian justification of the state as guarantor of security.
OriginalEnglish
2010s
2012
Der Wettbewerb der Gauner
OriginalGerman
"The Great Fiction" brings together 31 essays, lectures, and interviews by Hans-Hermann Hoppe spanning roughly a quarter of a century. The unifying theme is the opposition between private property, defined as exclusive control over scarce means, and the state, defined as the territorial monopolist of ultimate decision-making with the power to tax. Hoppe derives private property and original appropriation from Argumentation Ethics and develops from this a defence of the stateless society ordered by private law. The five parts treat social evolution from the Neolithic to the Industrial Revolution, money and central banking, the private production of defence, the methodological foundations of the Austrian School (Apriorism, probability, Praxeology), and the intellectual history surrounding Mises, Rothbard, and Hayek. Several contributions address democracy, centralization, secession, and migration.
OriginalEnglish
2014
Hans-Hermann Hoppe's essay offers a theoretical rather than empirical reconstruction of the origin of the state: from the aristocratic state of nature through monarchy to democracy. The starting point is the problem of scarcity, which gives rise to interpersonal conflict; rational people, Hoppe argues, agree on property in the first undisturbed possession and turn for the settlement of disputes to a natural aristocracy of voluntarily recognized judges. The decisive break is the establishment of a territorial monopoly of final decision-making: through an alliance with the people and the intellectuals, the feudal king becomes an absolute and then a constitutional monarch, and finally gives way to democracy. Hoppe interprets this development, usually regarded as progress, as advancing moral and economic folly, since the democratic administrator, unlike the owner-king, exploits in the short term. He points to his work Democracy: The God That Failed and closes with the hope for decentralization and secession.
OriginalEnglish
2015
In three essays Hans-Hermann Hoppe sets out to explain three turning points in human history from what he calls an Austro-Libertarian vantage point, combining Mises's praxeology with Rothbard's natural-law libertarianism. The first essay derives the joint origin of private land ownership and the family from the Neolithic Revolution, presenting both as rational solutions to the Malthusian pressure faced by hunter-gatherers. The second argues that the escape from the Malthusian trap around 1800, the Industrial Revolution, required not merely secure property rights but a long, selective rise in human intelligence and low time preference. The third reconstructs the State as a cumulative error, tracing its descent from a natural aristocratic order through absolute and constitutional monarchy to democracy, which Hoppe reads as decline rather than progress. Throughout, history is treated as contingent yet constrained by praxeological and ethical law.
OriginalEnglish
Further editions
  • Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit: Fortschritt und Niedergang
    OriginalGerman
2018
Getting Libertarianism Right brings together four texts by Hans-Hermann Hoppe, mostly addresses given to the Property and Freedom Society he founded. Hoppe derives libertarian doctrine from the scarcity of means and self-ownership: conflicts over scarce goods can be avoided only if every resource is assigned unambiguously to private property through original appropriation and voluntary exchange. Building on this, he takes a position in favour of a 'realistic' or right-wing variant of libertarianism that acknowledges empirical differences between people and cultures, and sharply distinguishes himself from left-libertarians. Further contributions address democracy as an accelerator of 'de-civilization', the relationship between libertarianism and the alt-right together with a populist strategy for social change, as well as a personal tribute to Murray Rothbard. The volume closes with an alphabetical index.
OriginalEnglish
2020s
2021
In ten lectures, Hans-Hermann Hoppe reconstructs world history from the ground up, from the origin of man to the present, as an interdisciplinary synthesis of economics, anthropology, sociology, and history. The starting point is three capacities proper to man: language, property, and production. From there, Hoppe develops the spread of humankind, the deepening of the division of labour, the role of money, time preference, and capital formation, as well as ideological and religious influences on the wealth of nations. The second part deals with the production of law and order without a state (natural order), the parasitic origin of the state, the transition from monarchy to democracy, and war and imperialism. The closing lecture sets out a strategy of secession, privatization, and political decentralization. The work reproduces the lectures given in Auburn in 2004.
OriginalEnglish
Ökonomik als Wissenschaft und die Methode der Österreichischen Schule
OriginalGerman
ARTICLES · 79 CATALOGUED

Essays, Reviews, Lectures

1970s
1976
Wirtschaftliche Rezession, Konfliktbereitschaft, und Reformbestrebungen in der Arbeitnehmerschaft, Gewerkschaftliche Monatshefte
OriginalGerman
1977
Beeinflussungsfaktoren der Konfliktbereitschaft bei Metallarbeitern, Sozialer Fortschritt
OriginalGerman
Einflussfaktoren auf die Konfliktbereitschaft von Arbeitern, Soziale Welt
OriginalGerman
Sicherheits- und Entfaltungswünsche, Neue Gesellschaft
OriginalGerman
1980s
1980
On How Not To Make Inferences About Measurement Error, Quality and Quantity
OriginalEnglish
1981
Über die Verwendung ungemessener Variablen in Kausalmodellen. Eine epistemologische Kritik, Zeitschrift für Soziologie
OriginalGerman
1982
Staatsausgaben für produktive Arbeitsplätze? Über die Wirkungen von Beschäftigungsprogrammen, Orientierungen zur Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftspolitik
OriginalGerman
Über ungemessene Variablen. Von einem Fehlschluss und zwei unbeantworteten Fragen, Zeitschrift für Soziologie
OriginalGerman
Vom Konzept der Wohlfahrtsmessung zur Theorie der Gerechtigkeit, Zeitschrift für Politik
OriginalGerman
1983
Is Research Based on Causal Scientific Principles Possible in the Social Sciences?
OriginalEnglish
1988
Demonstrated Preference and Private Property. Reply to Osterfeld, Austrian Economics Newsletter
OriginalEnglish
In Defense of Extreme Rationalism, Review of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
The Intellectual Cover for Socialism, Free Market
OriginalEnglish
The Justice of Economic Efficiency, Austrian Economics Newsletter
OriginalEnglish
The Ultimate Justification of the Private Property Ethic, Liberty
OriginalEnglish
Utilitarians and Randians vs. Reason, Liberty
OriginalEnglish
Why Socialism Must Fail, Free Market
OriginalEnglish
1989
Banking, Nation States, and International Politics, Review of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
European Economic Integration and the ECU, Austrian Economics Newsletter
OriginalEnglish
Intimidation by Argument – Once Again. Reply to Lomasky, Liberty
OriginalEnglish
Man, Economy, and Liberty. Review Essay, Review of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
On the Indefensibility of Welfare Rights. Reply to Conway, Austrian Economics Newsletter
OriginalEnglish
The Collapse of Socialism and the Future of Eastern Europe, Kwasny Economics
OriginalEnglish
1990s
1990
Marxist and Austrian Class Analysis, Journal of Libertarian Studies
OriginalEnglish
The Economics and Sociology of Taxation, Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines
OriginalEnglish
1991
Austrian Rationalism in the Age of the Decline of Positivism, Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines
OriginalEnglish
Desocialization in a United Germany, Review of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
The Bungling of German Reunification, Free Market
OriginalEnglish
1993
Nationalism and Secession, Chronicles
OriginalEnglish
Note on Socialism and Slavery
OriginalEnglish
The Four Step Health Care Solution
OriginalEnglish
1994
F.A.Hayek on Government and Social Evolution. A Critique, Review of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
How is Fiat Money Possible? or: the Devolution of Money and Credit,Review of Austrian Economics,
OriginalEnglish
Money, Method, and the Market Process. Essays by Ludwig von Mises. A Review, Austrian Economics Newsletter
OriginalEnglish
Time Preference, Government, and the Process of De-Civilization – From Monarchy to Democracy, Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines
OriginalEnglish
1995
Down with Democracy, Enterprise and Education. The Association of Private Enterprise Newsletter
OriginalEnglish
Ein Liberalismus von unerhörter Radikalität. Zum Tode von Murray N. Rothbard, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
OriginalGerman
Höhere Bildung, Sozialismus, und die Zukunft der Demokratie. Kommentar zu Don Lavoie, Reflexion
OriginalGerman
Murray Rothbard. R.I.P., Free Market
OriginalEnglish
The Political Economy of Monarchy and Democracy and the Idea of a Natural Order, Journal of Libertarian Studies
OriginalEnglish
1996
Einwanderungsfreiheit oder erzwungene Integration? – Eine liberale Antwort auf das Einwanderungsproblem, Criticon
OriginalGerman
Fallacies of the Public Goods Theory and the Production of Security, Journal of Libertarian Studies
OriginalEnglish
The Failure of America’s Foreign Wars. Edited by Richard Ebeling and Jacob Hornberger. A Book Review, The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty
OriginalEnglish
1997
On Certainty and Uncertainty – Or: How Rational Can Our Expectations Be?, Review of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
On the Law and Economics of Socialism and Desocialization, Cultural Dynamics
OriginalEnglish
Small is Beautiful And Efficient: The Case For Secession
OriginalEnglish
Socialism – A Property or Knowledge Problem?, Review of Austrian Economic
OriginalEnglish
The Meaning of the Mises Papers, Free Market
OriginalEnglish
The Mises Archive: A Treasure Uncovered, Wall Street Journal
OriginalEnglish
The Western State as a Paradigm: Learning from History Politics and Regimes. Religion & Public Life
OriginalEnglish
Where the Right Goes Wrong, Rothbard Rockwell Report
OriginalEnglish
1998
Against Fiduciary Media, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
The Case for Free Trade and Restricted Immigration,Journal of Libertarian Studies
OriginalEnglish
The Future of Liberalism. A Plea for a New Radicalism, Poli
OriginalEnglish
The Private Property Order. An Interview with Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Austrian Economics Newsletter
OriginalEnglish
The Trouble With Classical Liberalism, Rothbard Rockwell Report
OriginalEnglish
The Western State as Paradigm, Society
OriginalEnglish
1999
On Free Immigration and Forced Integration, LewRockwell.com
OriginalEnglish
The Private Production of Defense, Journal of Libertarian Studies
OriginalEnglish
What Made Germany Great. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Kleinstaaterei and Culture, Rothbard-Rockwell Report
OriginalEnglish
2000s
2000
The Second Paradox of Blackmail, Business Ethics Quarterly
OriginalEnglish
2001
Democracy: The God That Failed, LewRockwell.com
OriginalEnglish
2002
Geordnete Anarchie, Eigentum, Vertrag, und Staat. Naturrechtliche Anmerkungen, Erwägen, Wissen, Ethik
OriginalGerman
Goethe for the Millenium, Wall Street Journal Europe
OriginalEnglish
Natural Order, the State, and the Immigration Problem, Journal of Libertarian Studies
OriginalEnglish
On Property and Exploitation, International Journal of Value-Based Management
OriginalEnglish
Reviving the West (Review of Pat Buchanan’s The Death of the West), LewRockwell.com
OriginalEnglish
2003
Government, Money, and International Politics, Etica & Politica/Ethics & Politics
OriginalEnglish
Von der Unmöglichkeit des Sozialismus
OriginalGerman
2004
Property, Causality, and Liability, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
Why Bad Men Rule, LewRockwell.com
OriginalEnglish
2005
A Note on Preference and Indifference in Economic Analysis, Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics
OriginalEnglish
The Intellectual Incoherence of Conservatism , Mises.org
OriginalEnglish
The Rise and Fall of the City
OriginalEnglish
2006
Does the State Resolve or Create Conflict?, Mises.org
OriginalEnglish
Natural Elites, Intellectuals and the State
OriginalEnglish
Reflections on State and War, LewRockwell.com
OriginalEnglish
The Idea of a Private Law Society, LewRockwell.com
OriginalEnglish
The Paradox of Imperialism, Mises.org
OriginalEnglish
APA
Chicago
German historical style