Abstract
The anarcho-capitalist philosopher, Hans-Hermann Hoppe (1993; 2004), claims that self-ownership is the only ethical solution to the problem of social order. He claims that any denial of self-ownership represents a performative contradiction: that actively arguing against self-ownership presupposes one’s self-ownership. I examine Hoppe’s ethics and argue that, within that framework, self-ownership is a (not the) permissible ethic. There are strong empirical and theoretical cases to be made for libertarianism. Catching nonlibertarians in performative contradictions (gotcha!) is not one of them.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 79-88 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Private Enterprise |
Volume | 30 |
Issue number | 3 |
State | Published - Sep 1 2015 |
Keywords
- Argumentation
- Categorical imperatives
- Ethics
- Libertarianism
- Private property
- Rationality
- Self-ownership
- Universalist critique