Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Introduction

Nozick’s first book, written partly as a reply to his Harvard colleague John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice (1971); it won a US National Book Award in 1975. Part I argues against anarchists that a minimal state, limited to protection against force, theft and fraud, could arise without violating anyone’s rights; Part II argues that any more extensive state does violate them. Nozick’s “entitlement theory” judges holdings by how they came about – just acquisition and voluntary transfer – rather than by whether they fit a pattern such as equality. Part III presents the minimal state as a “framework for utopia”. The book, which also introduced the “experience machine”, is usually read as the classic philosophical case for libertarianism.

Connections

Builds on

• Two Treatises of Government1689 · John Locke

Criticizes

• A Theory of Justice1971 · John Rawls

Criticized in

• After Virtue1981 · Alasdair MacIntyre

Appears in

• Journey ‘What Is Just?’ · Stop 8 of 10