Habermas, Hoppe’s Teacher and PhD Advisor, dies at 96

From The Property and Freedom Blog:

Neo-Marxist German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has died; see Jürgen Habermas, influential German philosopher, dies at 96Jürgen Habermas, influential German philosopher, dies at 96 (AP, March 14, 2026).

As admirers of Hans-Hermann Hoppe know, Habermas was one of Hoppe’s teachers and the principal advisor for his doctoral dissertation in Philosophy on David Hume and Immanuel Kant at Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main from 1968–1974, Handeln und Erkennen [Action and Cognition] (Bern 1976) ). (At the time of time of his PhD dissertation, Hoppe was 24. He regards his “habilitation” thesis, written by the time he has reached intellectual maturity, and of course later work, as far more important than the PhD dissertation.) ¹ Hoppe soon abandoned the leftism of Habermas and the Frankfurt School and adopted Misesian Austrian economics and Rothbardian anarchist libertarianism. As Grok and ChatGPT recognize,  Hoppe is Habermas’s most famous but politically distant student (other prominent students of Habermas including more aligned figures like Axel Honneth, Rainer Forst, Claus Offe, and Hans Joas).

One thing Habermas became known for was his “discourse ethics”; ² Hoppe later relied to some degree on aspects of this theory, and to a greater degree on the more coherent and fleshed out views of fellow leftist German philosopher Karl-Otto Apel, ³ in developing his own “argumentation ethics” radical defense of libertarian rights. ⁴ Some Hoppe critics have overstated impact of Habermas’s ideas on Hoppe’s views; for example, back in 2019, Hoppe-basher Phil Magness made a confused attempt to try to link Hoppe’s views on immigration to his Habermas, even though analysis of democracy and immigration and related views has nothing whatsoever to do with Habermas. ⁵ Even Hoppe’s rights theory has only a slight connection to Habermas; Hoppe was actually not even aware of Habermas’s discourse ethics when studying under him.

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1. For his “Habilitation” thesis, in Sociology and Economics, from Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main, in 1981, see Hans-Hermann Hoppe, 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); Kinsella, Hoppe’s Habilitation Thesis: Critique of Causal Scientific Social Research. [↩]
2. See Kinsella, Revisiting Argumentation Ethics; Discourse Ethics entry in Wikipedia (which yours truly started, and which has more on Hoppe and Habermas). [↩]
3. Kinsella, Hoppe’s Argumentation Ethics and Its Critics. [↩]
4. Hoppe, My Discovery of Human Action and of Mises as a Philosopher; PFP163 | Hans Hermann Hoppe, “On The Ethics of Argumentation” (PFS 2016), and other references in Kinsella, “Argumentation Ethics and Liberty: A Concise Guide” (2011) and Supplemental Resources. [↩]
5. See Magness on Hoppe; the Kochtopus and the Mises Caucus; see also Prychitko on Habermas and Austrianism: Where’s Hoppe?; Hoppe: Habermas’s Anarcho-Conservative Student. [↩]