Robert Nozick, "Anarchy, State, and Utopia" [1974] Part 1 of 2

In his office down the hall at Harvard from John Rawls' office, Robert Nozick wrote Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) as his counter to Rawls' Theory of Justice (1971) and he won the National Book Award for his rejoinder. We're going to get into the polite, academic squabble on justice from a more libertarian POV.

From SEP:
Anarchy, State, and Utopia opens with the famously bold claim that “Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights)” (ix)

Robert Nozick (1938–2002) was a renowned American philosopher .... Pressing further the anti-consequentialist aspects of John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice, Nozick argued that respect for individual rights is the key standard for assessing state action and, hence, that the only legitimate state is a minimal state that restricts its activities to the protection of the rights of life, liberty, property, and contract.

For September 11th, 2022, please read:
Part I: State of Nature Theory
Part II: Beyond the Minimal State [Chap 7, Sec I: Distributive Justice]
[pages 3-182]

For September 25th, 2022, please read:
Part II: Beyond the Minimal State [Chap 7, Sec II through Chap 9: Demoktesis]
Part III: Utopia
[pages 183-334]

Edition (available from libraries or online):
Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Robert Nozick. Revised Edition. Forward by Thomas Nagel. New York: Basic Books, 2013. ISBN: 9780465051007. Used $8+
-----Robert Nozick. New York: Basic Books, 1974. ISBN: 9780465097203. Used $4+

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[NOT YET] IN-PERSON:
Tender Greens -Westwood
1109 Glendon Ave
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Any attendees who have not read the text will be invited to pose questions via the Zoom Chat.

Videos on Robert Nozick and John Rawls:
Bryan Magee interview of Ronald Dworkin on Rawls vs. Nozick [1978]
plus numerous others suggested by you!

Our 2022 Schedule (subject to change):
Sep 11: Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia [1974] (Basic, 2013) 1/2
Sep 25: Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia [1974] (Basic, 2013) 2/2
Oct 9: Foucault, Discipline and Punish [1975] (Penguin, 2020) 1/2
Oct 23: Foucault, Discipline and Punish [1975] (Penguin, 2020) 2/2
Nov 6: Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature [1979] (Princeton, 2017) 1/2
Nov 20: Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature [1979] (Princeton, 2017) 2/2
December: MacIntyre, After Virtue [1981] (3rd Ed. Notre Dame, 2007)
January 2023: Sen, The Idea of Justice [2009] (Belknap Press)

Follow the link here for a draft syllabus from Columbia U for our course of study.