The Pope, the Libertarian, and the Angelic Doctor Walk Into a Bar…
My good friend and host of the No Way Out podcast, Mark McGrath, likes to call me the second-most famous Villanova graduate in Italy. Of course, the most famous one sits on the Throne of St. Peter and has this uncanny penchant for pissing me off.
I had high hopes for Papa Leone, as we call him here in Italy. But time and again, from blessing ice blocks to condemning nation-states for enforcing borders, he’s let me down.
Este año marca el 250.º aniversario del nacimiento de Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. La mayoría de los europeos sabe que fue el más grande de los escritores y poetas alemanes, y una de las figuras colosales de la literatura universal. Menos conocido es que también fue un liberal clásico cabal, defensor del libre comercio y del libre intercambio cultural como claves del bienestar auténtico de las naciones y de una integración internacional pacífica. Además, se opuso firmemente a la expansión, centralización y unificación del poder político, argumentando que tales tendencias solo pueden obstaculizar la prosperidad y el verdadero desarrollo cultural. Por su relevancia en el proceso de construcción europea, me atrevo a nominar a Goethe como el europeo del milenio. [continue reading…]
Law is a social institution independent of the existence of the state. Law explicitly recognizes the principles of justice, which can only be consistently recognized as universal for all times and places. These principles serve not only to deliver justice, but also to judge the justice of the laws applied in any society. The state usurps law by a combination of force and ideology, monopolizing the final say in society and setting itself up as the final judge of all conflicts and crimes, including those involving the state itself. The state thus becomes both judge and party in its own cases.
Professor Hoppe’s monograph Kritik der kausalwissenschaftlichen Sozialforschung: Untersuchungen zur Grundlegung von Soziologie und Ökonomie [Critique of Causal Scientific Social Research: Studies on the Foundation of Sociology and Economics] (Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1983) has been translated into English by Andreas Tank. This monograph based is the published version of his “Habilitation” thesis, in Sociology and Economics, 1981, from the Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main.
On War, Democratic Peace, and Reeducation: The “German Experience” in Reactionary Perspective
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
I
All States make war. Indeed, States owe their very origin to war and are the result of war.[1] But there are different sorts of wars. Historically, for instance, there exists the ideal-typical distinction and difference of and between monarchical wars on the one hand and democratic wars on the other.[2][continue reading…]
[27:32] Tom Woods: Some people’s contribution to thought is “woke is bad.” I agree—woke people are hopeless, their arguments baseless. But speculating beyond that isn’t allowed because the range of acceptable opinion is tiny, with “woke is bad” taking up most of it. You and Tucker touched on issues not even well-known enough to be third rails, like democracy’s long-term problems. You made comments, possibly derived from Hans-Hermann Hoppe, about monarchy and democracy’s incentive structures. There’s nothing wrong with discussing this, but it shocked someone. The response was pointing and shouting, no engagement, because we’re dealing with not very bright people on the far-left wing of our movement. How can you live under this system, see how impossible it is to move the needle even when most agree with you, and not question it? You can’t pinpoint who’s to blame or get anyone to listen—they just repeat slogans. What would it take for their brains to switch on?
Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a divisive thinker, though not in the way one might expect. He does not shout, nor does he sermonise. He reasons. And in A Short History of Man: Progress and Decline, published by the Mises Institute, he offers a calm but devastating account of how civilisation was built—and how it is now being dismantled, largely with democratic consent. It is not a cheerful book. But then again, neither is history.
At 113 pages, this is no sprawling chronicle. It is a tightly argued triptych of essays: “On the Origin of Private Property and the Family,” “From the Malthusian Trap to the Industrial Revolution,” and “From Aristocracy to Monarchy to Democracy.” Each follows logically from the last, and each takes aim at a cherished myth of modernity. Progress, Hoppe reminds us, is real. But it is also reversible.
Oscar Grau has translated the resignation of Hans-Hermann Hoppe and other academics from the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Germany, due to the recently award announced in favor of the president of Argentina, Javier Milei.
Renuncia al Consejo Asesor Científico del Instituto Ludwig von Mises Alemania
El 13 de julio de 2025, el Prof. Dr. Rolf W. Puster, el Prof. Dr. Jörg Guido Hülsmann y el Prof. Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe anunciaron su renuncia al Consejo Asesor Científico del Instituto Ludwig von Mises Alemania. Solo dos de los cinco miembros originales permanecen en dicho Consejo.
A continuación, Puster, Hülsmann y Hoppe explican los motivos de su dimisión. [continue reading…]
Jesús Huerta de Soto, “Long live freedom! Laudation for Javier Milei,” Misesde.org (26.06.2024) (which had the note: “Note: The contents of the articles do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Germany)
0:08 – Opening Welcome and Conference Introduction
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit
Dear ladies, dear gentlemen, dear guests, dear friends of freedom, we are very pleased that you are with us today and in the name of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Germany I warmly welcome you to the 13th Annual Conference. It is titled “The Freedom Revolution in Argentina: A Blueprint for the West.”
0:31 – Regrettable Absence of Argentine President
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Polleit
As you probably already know, the Argentine President, our guest, unfortunately had to cancel. He unfortunately cannot be here today. Recent unexpected events in Argentina so shortly before the election make it impossible for him. Milei has therefore asked to postpone the awards ceremony and we are now thinking about how to best design and keep it up to date, as it is handled. But regardless, today you can expect a truly exceptional and exciting program.
***
Resignation from the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Germany
On 13 July 2025, Prof. Dr. Rolf W. Puster, Prof. Dr. Jörg Guido Hülsmann and Prof. Dr. Hans-Hermann Hoppe declared their resignation from the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ludwig von Mises Institute Germany. Only two of the original five members remain on that Board.
Below, Puster, Hülsmann and Hoppe explain the reasons for their resignation. [continue reading…]
Both books have passed the official appraisal of Shanghai Administration of Press and Publication, which is very good news. Furthermore, these two books will be included in the series of “Classics of the Austrian School of Economics”, in which we already have ten classic works translated and published in the market a few years ago.
Entrevistador (E): Profesor Hoppe, en la actualidad la intervención estatal ha llegado a un punto álgido tanto en el ámbito económico como en el social. Muchos ciudadanos quieren más gobierno y menos mercado. ¿Cómo explica esto?
Hoppe (H): La historia demuestra que las crisis promueven la expansión del Estado. Eso es particularmente evidente con las guerras y los ataques terroristas. Los gobiernos utilizan esas crisis para presentarse como si fuesen ellos quienes fuesen a solucionar las crisis. Esto también es aplicable a las crisis financieras. Ha brindado a los gobiernos y a sus bancos centrales una oportunidad para intervenir todavía más en la economía y en la sociedad. Los representantes del gobierno se las han arreglado para echar la culpa de la crisis al capitalismo, a los mercados y a la avaricia.[continue reading…]
Filozofia polityczna Hansa-Hermanna Hoppego. Studium krytyczne (The Political Philosophy of Hans-Hermann Hoppe: A Critical Study) (Oficyna Wydawnicza, August 2024), a PhD dissertation by Norbert Slenzok, has recently been published. An AI-assisted translation is available, thanks to Joseph Britton (pdf).
Abstract: The present book offers a critical examination of the political philosophy of Hans-Hermann Hoppe, a leading libertarian thinker. In addition to expounding upon Hoppe’s philosophy, we also engage in assessing its truth value. This evaluation involves reinterpreting, reformulating, or even rejecting Hoppe’s arguments when necessary to refine and defend his overarching system. Indeed, it is exactly the book’s main thesis that Hoppean philosophy constitutes a full-fledged system. As is shown, that system springs up from epistemological rationalism (apriorism) conceived along the lines of Kantian transcendentalism and pragmatism, as reconstructed and integrated with one another by Karl-Otto Apel’s transcendental pragmatics of language, the Erlangen constructivist school, and Austrian school praxeology. This epistemological position underpins Hoppe’s greatest intellectual achievement: his argumentation ethics, which aims to establish the ultimate grounding for libertarian justice theory, centered around self-ownership and original acquisition. With epistemology and ethics as its pillars, Hoppe’s system extends to the core domains of political theory: anarchy and the state, philosophy of history, questions of culture and civilization, and the practical problems of political strategy.
I asked Grok4 (SuperGrok) and ChatGPT to provide executive summaries of Hoppe’s thought. Results below; I have not reviewed these.
My prompt:
Take these documents by Hans-Hermann Hoppe and provide an organized executive summary of Hoppe’s social thought: his economics and economic theory, his views on rights and libertarianism, democracy, immigration, and other issues. Organize it systematically, and include detailed links, references, footnotes/endnotes, and so on. Entitle this Hoppe’s Social Theory: An Executive Summary. Make this as detailed and comprehensive as possible and as long as necessary.
Taki Theodoracopulos LewRockwell.com, June 27, 2025
Both the system and the word “democracy” were invented by the Greeks, specifically the Athenians. “Demos” was the ancient word for “people,” hence the rule of the people is democracy. I’ve always preferred the selective kind, as practiced by the Brits until late in the 19th century—when one needed to own property before qualifying to vote—and the kind that made ancient Athens great, an obligatory education before being allowed to cast a ballot. That kept the demagogues in their place, because if you are correctly educated you can sniff out the fraud and duper from a mile away. [continue reading…]
