Against anarchism-the position of a very small minority in American society-he argued that a minimal state, enforcing strictly limited laws, is not an undue infringement on personal rights. Nozick formulated his position as a two-edged argument. It implied also a freedom of business enterprise from most forms of government regulation and from much of conventional taxation-pleasing to the political right. That position constituted a radical endorsement of freedom of speech, of sexual action, of life styles-pleasing in many ways to the political left, especially the youthful New Left. Nozick's next paragraph affirmed 'that a minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified that any more extensive state will violate persons' rights not to be forced to do certain things, and is unjustified.' The book began with the declaration: 'Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights).' That might seem to be a fairly conventional statement in a society nourished in the American Declaration of Independence, but its elaboration quickly struck sparks.

And its style was a mixing of close philosophical analysis, brash personal assertions, anecdotes, and humor. Its opinions did not quite fit any of the common patterns of scholarly or popular thinking. Unlike most books out of academia, it was a manifesto to the public, political world. The startling effect of the book came from its combination of several qualities. Nozick won almost instant fame in 1974 with his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia, which earned a National Book Award in 1975. He became a familiar figure in the Harvard Yard, often arriving at his office in athletic togs after running or bicycling from his home. (1963) from Princeton University.Īfter teaching as an instructor and assistant professor of philosophy at Princeton (1962-1965), he went to Harvard as assistant professor (1965-1967), to Rockefeller University as associate professor (1967-1969), then back to Harvard as full professor in 1969. degree in 1959 at Columbia University, where he was a socialist and a member of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society.

His parents were both immigrants, and he referred to himself as just one generation from the shtetl (the small-town Jewish communities of Eastern Europe). Robert Nozick was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 16, 1938. He went on to investigate classical issues in philosophy that have often been neglected or dismissed by modern analytic philosophers. The American philosopher Robert Nozick (born 1938) established his reputation as a polemical advocate of radical libertarianism, a position arguing for maximum individual rights and a minimal government.

Nozick anarchy