Anarchy, State and Utopia

Robert Nozick

Basic Books, 1974 - Political Science - 367 pages

Winner of the 1975 National Book Award, this brilliant and widely acclaimed book is a powerful philosophical challenge to the most widely held political and social positions of our age--liberal, socialist, and conservative.

What people are saying

Review: Anarchy, State, and Utopia

User Review  - Andrew Cutler - Goodreads

An amazing text full of so many fun thought experiments and ideas, many of which Nozick immediately abandoned after writing this! His idea of an 'experience machine' as a counter to hedonistic and ...

Review: Anarchy, State, and Utopia

User Review  - Rui Baptista - Goodreads

Nozick was a philosopher-for-rent. His theories were built on demand to provide justification for an increasingly unequal society where the richest few control all decisions and accumulate more and ...

Contents

• Why StateofNature Theory ?: 3
• POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY: 4
• EXPLANATORY POLITICAL THEORY: 6
• The State of Nature: 10
• PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS: 12
• THE DOMINANT PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION: 15
• INVISIBLEHAND EXPLANATIONS: 18
• IS THE DOMINANT PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION A STATE?: 22
• Moral Constraints and the State: 26
• MORAL CONSTRAINTS AND MORAL GOALS: 28
• WHY SIDE CONSTRAINTS?: 30
• LIBERTARIAN CONSTRAINTS: 33
• CONSTRAINTS AND ANIMALS: 35
• THE EXPERIENCE MACHINE: 42
• UNDERDETERMINATION OF MORAL THEORY: 45
• WHAT ARE CONSTRAINTS BASED UPON?: 48
• THE INDIVIDUALIST ANARCHIST: 51
• Prohibition Compensation and Risk: 54
• PROHIBITION AND COMPENSATIONWhy StateofNature Theory ?: 57
• WHY EVER PROHIBIT?Why StateofNature Theory ?: 58
• RETRIBUTIVE AND DETERRENCE THEORIES OF PUNISHMENT: 59
• DIVIDING THE BENEFITS OF EXCHANGE: 63
• FEAR AND PROHIBITION: 65
• WHY NOT ALWAYS PROHIBIT?: 71
• RISK: 73
• THE PRINCIPLE OF COMPENSATION: 78
• PRODUCTIVE EXCHANGE: 84
• The State: 88
• THE PRINCIPLE OF FAIRNESS: 90
• PROCEDURAL RIGHTS: 96
• HOW MAY THE DOMINANT AGENCY ACT?: 101
• THE DE FACTO MONOPOLY: 108
• PROTECTING OTHERS: 110
• THE STATE: 113
• THE INVISIBLEHAND EXPLANATION OF THE STATE: 118
• Further Considerations on the Argument for the State: 120
• PREEMPTIVE ATTACK: 126
• BEHAVIOR IN THE PROCESS: 130
• LEGITIMACY: 133
• THE RIGHT OF ALL TO PUNISH: 137
• PREVENTIVE RESTRAINT: 142
• Beyond the Minimal State?: 147
• Distributive Justice: 149
• HISTORICAL PRINCIPLES AND ENDRESULT PRINCIPLES: 153
• PATTERNING: 155
• HOW LIBERTY UPSETS PATTERNS: 160
• SENS ARGUMENT: 164
• REDISTRIBUTION AND PROPERTY RIGHTS: 167
• LOCKES THEORY OF ACQUISITION: 174
• THE PROVISO: 178
• TERMS OF COOPERATION AND THE DIFFERENCE PRINCIPLE: 189
• THE ORIGINAL POSITION AND ENDRESULT PRINCIPLES: 198
• MACRO AND MICRO: 204
• NATURAL ASSETS AND ARBITRARINESS: 213
• THE POSITIVE ARGUMENT: 216
• THE NEGATIVE ARGUMENT: 224
• COLLECTIVE ASSETS: 228
• Equality Envy Exploitation Etc: 232
• EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY: 235
• SELFESTEEM AND ENVY: 239
• MEANINGFUL WORK: 246
• WORKERS CONTROL: 250
• MARXIAN EXPLOITATION: 253
• VOLUNTARY EXCHANGE: 262
• PHILANTHROPY: 265
• HAVING A SAY OVER WHAT AFFECTS YOU: 268
• THE NONNEUTRAL STATE: 271
• HOW REDISTRIBUTION OPERATES: 274
• Demoktesis: 276
• CONSISTENCY AND PARALLEL EXAMPLES: 277
• THE MORETHANMINIMAL STATE DERIVED: 280
• HYPOTHETICAL HISTORIES: 292
• Utopia: 295
• A Framework for Utopia: 297
• THE MODEL PROJECTED ONTO OUR WORLD: 307
• THE FRAMEWORK: 309
• DESIGN DEVICES AND FILTER DEVICES: 312
• THE FRAMEWORK AS UTOPIAN COMMON GROUND: 317
• COMMUNITY AND NATION: 320
• COMMUNITIES WHICH CHANGE: 323
• TOTAL COMMUNITIES: 325
• UTOPIAN MEANS AND ENDS: 326
• HOW UTOPIA WORKS OUT: 331
• UTOPIA AND THE MINIMAL STATE: 333
• Notes: 335
• Bibliography: 355
• Index: 361

About the author

Robert Nozick (1938-2002) was the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. The author of numerous books including The Examined Life and Philosophical Explanations, Nozick was the recipient of the National Book Award for Anarchy, State, and Utopia.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Anarchy, State and Utopia; Volume 5038 of Harper Torchbooks
• Author: Robert Nozick
• Publisher: Basic Books, 1974
• ISBN: 0465097200, 9780465097203
• Length: 367 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / Political Freedom; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Anarchism; Political Science / Political Process / Leadership