Mises Wire

Hans-Hermann Hoppe is a name to reckon with. He has for over forty years made outstanding contributions to Austrian economics, philosophy, history, and sociology, all from a Rothbardian perspective. Murray Rothbard was his great mentor and friend, and no one among his Rothbardian contemporaries has had so wide a public impact.

For this reason, the appearance of a second edition of Hans Hoppe’s indispensable collection The Great Fiction will be welcomed by all readers interested in the theoretical foundations of a free society. This edition includes seven new chapters. One of the new chapters, “On Man, Nature, Truth, and Justice,” is a remarkable and original contribution to philosophy. Hoppe extends the concept of action from its place in Austrian economics to cover not only the social world but much of the physical world as well. Speech is a form of meaningful action, and speech-based actions and human tools have shaped the world. In the progress of technology lies an answer to the relativistic claims of Thomas Kuhn and others whom Hoppe regards as nihilists. In other new essays, he suggests that secession is an appropriate response to redistributionist taxation and he offers a penetrating critique of Steven Pinker’s account of the evolution of violence.

I have learned a great deal from Hans Hoppe over our decades of friendship, and I urge everyone to read this new edition of The Great Fiction.