Advantages and Limitations of Neo-Kantian Justifications of Libertarianism

In general, neo-Kantian inspirations in libertarian political philosophy are twofold. First, there is a fundamental, although usually indirect, adherence to the Kantian-like idea human dignity which can be traced back to Robert Nozick. Second, due to its historical and theoretical relation to praxeology of Ludwig von Mises, libertarianism appeals to synthetic a priori propositions, which is clearly visible in so called Austro-libertarianism, represented, among others, by Murray N. Rothbard and Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Hoppe has proposed the fullest account of neo-Kantian libertarianism by merging Misesian praxeology with discourse ethics developed by Karl-Otto Apel and Jürgen Habermas into so called argumentation ethics which has become one of the main justifications of radical libertarianism. The paper argues that using Kantian account of human dignity can be theoretically promising for libertarianism, however argumentation ethics is a flawed metaethical approach.