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Robert Nozick: John Rawls
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Robert Nozick's work brought libertarianism back to the center of academic debate. Anarchy, State and Utopia offered a sharp and engaging defense of the liberty of the individual and the minimal state and an influential rebuttal of John Rawls's defense of the welfare state. This forum will offer three assessments of Robert Nozick's legacy and its implications for political life in the 21st century.
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Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State and Utopia is one of the works which dominates contemporary debate in political philosophy. Drawing on traditional assumptions associated with individualism and libertarianism, Nozick mounts a powerful argument for a minimal `nightwatchman' state and challenges the views of many contemporary philosophers, most notably John Rawls.
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Unlike Rawls, Nozick neglected political philosophy for the rest of his philosophical career. He moved on to address other philosophical questions and made significant contributions to other areas of philosophical inquiry. In epistemology, Nozick developed an externalist analysis of knowledge in terms of counterfactual conditions that provides a response to radical skepticism. In metaphysics, he proposed a “closest continuer” theory of personal identity.
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One of the most frequently-voiced criticisms of Anarchy, State, and Utopia is that Nozick simply assumes at the outset the claim that individuals possess substantive natural rights. In “Projects and Propertyâ€, John T. Sanders attempts to go some way towards providing the theoretical foundations for a broadly-Nozickian conception of property rights. For Sanders, it is a consideration of the crucial role that personal projects play in making life meaningful which explains why we have reasons to respect property rights, since it is the possession of property that creates an environment in which such projects can be fruitfully pursued.
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Some ... criticize the arguments upon which Nozick bases his theory. They complain that the poor and disadvantaged would have no reason to comply with a system which does not cater to their interests. But turn the situation around: why should the rich comply with a system in which everything they do must benefit someone else, as Rawls contends. That is a system in which success is punished and failure and poverty are rewarded. Nozick's system is designed to reward the successful and provide disincentives to failure and poverty. It seems to be much more sensible to make people want to be rich than poor.
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Not much is known about the private life of Nozick; ... it is believed by a small group of contemporary scholars that he suffered from multiple personality disorder. One of his alternate personalities is thought to be the founder of Lockheed Martin, to have written "Two Treaties on Government" and "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding," and believed to have played a lead role in the epic poem and TV show "Lost," which was popular at the time. In fact, a small but growing number of scholars theorize he may have been John Locke.
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