Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Robert Nozick's 1974 defence of the minimal state, written against Rawls.
At a glance
Key ideas
Invisible-hand explanations, From ultraminimal to minimal state, Rights as side constraints …
See all 7Criticism
Murray Rothbard, Rawls, Arthur Allen Leff
See all 3Connections
Robert Nozick, A Theory of Justice and After Virtue
See all 3
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Nozick argues for a minimal state limited to protection against force, theft and fraud and the enforcement of contracts.
- He shows how such a state could arise from protective associations without violating anyone's rights, against the anarchist.
- Against Rawls, his entitlement theory judges a distribution by how it arose, not by its pattern.
- The last part sketches a framework for utopia in which people can leave associations and form their own.
Why it matters
- It is the canonical philosophical statement of libertarianism and the standard reply to Rawls; its thought experiments are taught well beyond politics.
Key facts
- Author
- Robert Nozick1
- Published
- 19741
- Origin
- A 1971 Harvard course, Capitalism and Socialism, that Nozick taught as a debate with Michael Walzer1
- Award
- 1975 US National Book Award, Philosophy and Religion1
- Reach
- Translated into 11 languages; named one of the Times Literary Supplement's 100 most influential books since the war (1945 to 1995)1
Key ideas
-
Invisible-hand explanations1
The state is explained as arising from a state of nature without anyone designing it.
-
From ultraminimal to minimal state1
A dominant protective agency becomes a minimal state by compensating independents, not by redistributing.
-
Rights as side constraints1
Rights limit what may be done to anyone, even to prevent other violations.
-
Entitlement theory1
Justice in acquisition, justice in transfer, and rectification of past injustice.
-
Wilt Chamberlain1
Free payments to one player upset any patterned distribution, so patterns conflict with liberty.
-
Lockean proviso1
Appropriating something unowned is forbidden when it worsens the position of others.
-
Experience machine and utility monster1
Two thought experiments against classical utilitarianism.
Criticism
Connections
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
Is something on this page wrong or out of date? Tell us
The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.