Most reviewers praised it as an elegant and elaborate presentation of a very distinctive position, but the position itself was vigorously attacked from all sides, although some assailants admitted to illumination while some were shocked. In this brilliant and widely acclaimed book, winner of the 1975 National Book Award, Robert Nozick challenges the most commonly held political and social positions of. Any more extensive activities by the state, he demonstrates, will inevitably violate individual rights.Īmong the many achievements of the work are an important new theory of distributive justice, a model of utopia, and an integration of ethics, legal philosophy and economic theory into a profound position in political philosophy which will be discussed for years to come. When Anarchy, State, and Utopia was published, it received a mixed reception to say the least. The author argues that the state is justified only when it is severely limited to the narrow function of protection against force, theft and fraud and to the enforcement of contracts. "Individuals have rights," Nozick writes in his opening sentence, "and there are things no person or group may do to them without violating their rights." The work that follows is a sophisticated and passionate defence of the rights of the individual as opposed to the state. Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia is a powerful, philosophical challenge to the most widely held political and social positions of our age - liberal, socialist and conservative.
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