Hans-Hermann Hoppe

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Image:Hans-Hermann-Hoppe.jpg Hans-Hermann Hoppe (born September 2, 1949) is an Austrian school economist, an anarcho-capitalist (libertarian) philosopher, and a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Born in Peine West Germany, he attended the Universität des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken, and the Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, studying philosophy, sociology, history, and economics. He earned his Ph.D. (Philosophy, 1974) and his Habilitation (Foundations of Sociology and Economics, 1981), both from the Goethe-Universität. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor from 1976 to 1978.

He taught at several German universities as well as at the Johns Hopkins University Bologna Center for Advanced International Studies, Bologna, Italy. In 1986, he moved from Germany to the United States, to study under Murray Rothbard. He remained a close associate until Rothbard's death in January 1995.

Hoppe is currently Professor of Economics at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Distinguished Fellow with the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and, until December, 2004, the editor of the Journal of Libertarian Studies. The author of several widely-discussed books and articles, he has put forth an "argumentation ethics" defense of libertarian rights, based in part on the discourse ethics theories of German philosophers Jürgen Habermas (Hoppe's PhD advisor) and Karl-Otto Apel.

Controversy

Hoppe's comments during a lecture at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas about time preference and homosexuals (such as John Maynard Keynes) have generated controversy. An academic investigation resulted in a "nondisciplinary" letter (.pdf) being issued 9 February 2005 instructing him to "cease mischaracterizing opinion as objective fact". Others have defended him regarding this controversy--over 1700 academics and others signed a petition of his behalf[1], and the ACLU agreed to represent him. He was also defended by the editorial board of The Rebel Yell, UNLV's school newspaper, who stated in a 10 February 2005 that the school was "a virtual black hole of thought--a barren desert of oppression where the most fragile bloom of originality is stomped out under the mud caked boots of clodhopping ignorance."[2]

Carol Harter, president of UNLV, in an 18 February 2005 letter (.pdf) declaring a close to the case, said that "Teaching is of its nature and origin provocative. Faculty are called upon to challenge students, to push them to a greater understanding, and to encourage them to question the current base of knowledge and, in so doing, to create new knowledge... In the balance between freedoms and responsibilities, and where there may be ambiguity between the two, academic freedom must, in the end, be foremost... UNLV considers this matter closed." In a vindication of Hoppe, the "nondisciplinary" letter was removed from his personnel file; and the dispute eventually prompted UNLV to discuss and reexamine its policy on academic freedom in a public conference.[3]

In June 2005, Hoppe granted an interview in the German nationalist newspaper Junge Freiheit, in which he characterized monarchy as a lesser evil than democracy, calling the latter mob rule and saying, "Liberty instead of democracy!" In the interview Hoppe also condemned the French revolution as belonging in "the same category of vile revolutions as well as the Bolshevik revolution and the national socialist [Nazi] revolution," because the French revolution led to "Regicide, Egalitarianism, democracy, socialism, hatred of all religion, terror measures, looting, rape and murder, the general military compulsion obligation and the total, ideologically motivated war."[4]