Robert Nozick 1938 – 2002
Robert Nozick was an American philosopher and a longtime professor at Harvard. His Anarchy, State, and Utopia, published in 1974 in part as a response to Rawls's Theory of Justice, defended a libertarian minimal state on the grounds of individual rights and a historical, entitlement-based conception of justice. He also introduced the experience-machine thought experiment against hedonism. His later work ranged widely across epistemology, decision theory, and the meaning of life, in books such as Philosophical Explanations and The Examined Life, marking him as one of the most curious and protean philosophers of his generation.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Era
- Contemporary
- Movements
- Analytic, Political
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Robert Nozick:
“Whatever arises from a just situation by just steps is itself just.”
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Attributed to Robert Nozick:
“The minimal state is the most extensive state that can be justified.”
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Attributed to Robert Nozick:
“There is no social entity with a good that undergoes some sacrifice for its own good. There are only individual people, with their own individual lives.”
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Attributed to Robert Nozick:
“Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor.”
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Attributed to Robert Nozick:
“Plug into an experience machine and you will not have lived a real life.”