Robert Nozick and the Minimal State (or: The Rise of the Kinda-Sorta Centrists)
Details
Last meeting, we took a look into John Rawls and the argument for social democracy (as opposed to socialism, or the American republic as we have known it from, say, the post World War II era and onward). This time around, we examine the philosophy of a man who took a look at the large state and said 'no', anarchy and also responded with a rousing 'nuh uh'... and came up with a compromise that apparently resonated with some of the big names in contemporary political philosophy, given that we are going to put aside the time to examine it.
Expect some poking into Rawls's maximin principle and the supposed rational response to the veil of ignorance (that is, if logical thinkers such as hopefully-ourselves had to redo society as we know it), an examination into how much humanity should be willing to put up with for security and other basic goods and essentials, why Nozick thinks that the quest for complete equality may be a misguided use of our time and concern, and--just in time for election season--the justice of income equality and the lack thereof.
Optional Readings:
'Robert Nozick's Derivation of the Minimal State' (By Robert Paul Wolff. 24-page PDF.): http://people.umass.edu/rwolff/nozickplus.pdf
Philosophize This! Transcript (Episode 138 – Robert Nozick – The Minimal State): https://philosophizethis.org/the-minimal-state/