Friendly reminder: Murray N. Rothbard on Hans-Hermann Hoppe (via ChatGPT)

what did Murray N. Rothbard think about Hans-Hermann Hoppe?

Murray N. Rothbard held Hans-Hermann Hoppe in extremely high regard, considering him one of the most brilliant and important scholars in the libertarian and Austrian economics traditions. Rothbard saw Hoppe as a key intellectual ally, particularly in advancing anarcho-capitalist thought and integrating rigorous philosophical justifications for private property and free markets.

One of Rothbard’s strongest endorsements of Hoppe came in the early 1990s, when he praised Hoppe’s book A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (1989), calling it “a work of genius” and one of the most important contributions to Austrian economics and libertarian thought. He admired Hoppe’s ability to provide a praxeological and logical defense of anarcho-capitalism, particularly through Hoppe’s “argumentation ethics,” which Rothbard saw as a groundbreaking justification for libertarian property rights.

In a 1990 Liberty magazine symposium, Rothbard even went so far as to declare that Hoppe had surpassed his own work in some areas, saying:

“I am happy to say that there is one person who has done it: Hans-Hermann Hoppe.”

Rothbard also supported Hoppe’s application of Austrian economic principles to issues like democracy and monarchy, themes later developed in Democracy: The God That Failed (2001). Rothbard encouraged Hoppe’s critiques of democracy and his preference for decentralized, private-law societies.

In short, Rothbard saw Hoppe as a crucial intellectual successor and one of the foremost defenders of radical libertarianism and Austrian economics.