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Anarchy, State and Utopia
by: Robert Nozick

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 100
EAN: 9780631197805
ISBN: 063119780X
Label: WileyBlackwell
Manufacturer: WileyBlackwell
Number Of Pages: 367
Publication Date: January 04, 2001
Publisher: WileyBlackwell
Studio: WileyBlackwell
Sales Rank: 30230

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- A very nasty piece of work.
Nozick is the considered the originator of the oxymoronic and totally imaginary 'anarcho capitalist' movement. In practice this is just about the least human, humane and rational school of thought to come out of Enlightenment liberalism. Entirely unworkable and entirely contradictory, the idea that you can have a stateless society yet run things by the market is far more ridiculous than the ideas of actual anarchists like Bakunin and Kropotkin.

Even if all people were born completely equal with exactly the same skills and resources available, as long as the uneven distribution of the market existed then in one generation an elite would form and oppress those who hadn't made it. This is the nature of the market, some win because ... Read More:

Rating:

- Vive l'anarchie, l'etat et l'Ethiopia!
Nozick's incisive arguments for individual freedom derive from moral conviction rather than economic theory. Life affirming to the core, they are framed in a delightful style leavened with wit. The spark animating his analyses consistently inspires whilst the skill and precision of his definitions, distinctions and diction impress throughout.

To Nozick, the individual is sacred, self-owning and inviolable. Individuals are ends in themselves, not the means for other individuals to attain ends. This conviction is the source of the right to life, liberty and property. Part One investigates justifications for the existence of the state as an agent of monopoly power.

He defends the minimal or "night watchman" state by identifying ... Read More:

Rating:

- Disappointingly little knowledge of philosophy for a philosophy prof.
Nozick starts from the assumption that the one basic human right in the "state of nature" is the right to hold property, absolutely, without regard to anyone else. From this he concludes that it is wrong for the state demand taxes to pay welfare, and that slavery is fine so long as it is done with the slave's initial consent.

He purports to base this on a misquote of Kant: "treat others as an end not solely as a means". Kant actually said "treat humanity whether in your own person or in the person of another not solely as a means but also as an end". From this Kant deduced the opposite: that it was obligatory to pay charity, and that slavery was in all cases abhorrent. Nozick doesn't actually mention any of Kant's arguments, which is odd, ... Read More:

Rating:

- A very good argument, but now painfully out of date
Having read Rawls as part of my degree, we were also given parts of Nozick to compare it with. On reading the book, it seemed to be a more impressive argument when you see how all of his different ideas link together. He does make a forceful critique of Marxism in particular, and notes how Marxist ideas of "expoitation" could render parts of the welfare state as exploitative. There are three big problems though.

First, this was written back in the days when political debates were Left v Right. It makes no mention at all of environmentalism, and the only time that it mentions animal rights is as an example of an absurdity [Nozick actually believes that eating meat is immoral, but he uses this as an example of how utilitarianism cannot be ... Read More:

Rating:

- Outstanding
Nozick is original, accessible, fascinating and above all persuasive. The gaps he leaves, like a justification for natural rights are the only parts of the book that dissapoint. This is particularly the case because he moved onto other topics so fast in his lifetime he never really formally addressed these central issues. Otherwise an absolutely outstanding piece of literature and political philosophy.

Books : Anarchy, State and Utopia