Człowiek jednowymiarowy – etyka Ayn Rand i Hansa-Hermanna Hoppego
One-dimensional Man – Ethics of Ayn Rand and Hans Hermann Hoppe

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the ethical theories of Ayn Rand and Hans-Herman Hoppe, pointing out their – seemingly non-obvious – similarity. Both, stemming from different traditions, Aristotelian and Kantian, respectively, accept reason as their ethical foundation. In Rand’s case, reason is the opposite of emotion and whim, while for Hoppe reason is a tool of rational argumentation. Behind the ethical views of Rand and Hoppe stands a certain vision of man – in our opinion, wrong, or at least one-sided. In the article, we will try to indicate what this error, or the one-sidedness of both theories, consists of. In both cases, conflict, which according to Rand and Hoppe is inherently solvable, is the core of human life and the axis of both ethics; emotions in ethics are either reduced to whims (Rand) or completely eliminated (Hoppe); and the space in which the individual realizes himself is mainly the economic sphere and the free market. The last section criticizes Hoppe’s position, and partly Rand’s, from the point of view of virtue ethics; in conclusion, it points to the possibility of redirecting libertarianism towards this very ethics.

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