Thinkers and political figures
Portrait: Libertarian Review, 1977, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain
Robert Nozick
- Country
- United States
- Era
- 1938–2002
- Tradition
- Libertarianism
Philosopher who wrote the most serious reply to Rawls, arguing that any state larger than one protecting people from force and fraud necessarily violates their rights.
01
Documented positions
Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.
- Argued that only a minimal state — police, courts, defence — can be justified without violating individual rights
- Held that taxation of earnings for redistribution is on a par with forced labour
- Argued that a distribution is just if it arose from just acquisition and voluntary transfer, regardless of the resulting pattern
- Held that any attempt to maintain a preferred pattern of distribution requires continuous interference with people’s free choices
- Defended a framework of voluntary communities in which people could choose to live under more collective arrangements
- Later qualified the position, describing the libertarianism of Anarchy, State, and Utopia as "seriously inadequate"
02
Where it sits on each dimension
Wealth and inequality
94
RedistributionMarket outcomes
Evidence: Well documented
The state in the economy
96
Active stateLimited state
Evidence: Well documented
Personal liberty
92
Collective orderIndividual freedom
Evidence: Well documented
Power and its limits
62
Concentrated authorityChecks and pluralism
Evidence: Documented
Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Tradition and change, Nation and the world, Religion and the state, Environment and growth, Crime and punishment
Sources
- Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia · 1974
- Robert Nozick, The Examined Life · 1989
Last verified: