Robert Nozick
Robert Nozick
Robert Nozickwas an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, and was president of the American Philosophical Association. He is best known for his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia, a libertarian answer to John Rawls' A Theory of Justice. His other work involved decision theory and epistemology...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth16 November 1938
CountryUnited States of America
survival engagement able
Through the evolutionary process, those who are able to engage in social cooperation of various sorts do better in survival and reproduction.
vision unity may
It goes without saying that any persons may attempt to unite kindred spirits, but, whatever their hopes and longings, none have the right to impose their vision of unity upon the rest.
matter feels our-lives
What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?
nice philosophy believe
Why are philosophers intent on forcing others to believe things? Is that a nice way to behave towards someone?
rooms lasts last-words
There is room for words on subjects other than last words.
temperature determinism
No one has ever announced that because determinism is true thermostats do not control temperature.
justice steps arise
Whatever arises from a just situation by just steps is itself just.
motivation philosophy nice
Philosophical argument, trying to get someone to believe something whether he wants to believe it or not, is not, I have held, a nice way to behave towards someone; also it does not fit the original motivation for studying or entering philosophy. That motivation is puzzlement, curiousity, a desire to understand, not a desire to produce uniformity of belief. Most people do not want to become thought-police. The philosophical goal of explanation rather than proof not only is morally better, it is more in accord with one's philosophical motivation.
views would-be machines
One way to determine if a view is inadequate is to check its consequences in particular cases, sometimes extreme ones, but if someone always decided what the result should be in any case by applying the given view itself, this would preclude discovering it did not correctly fit the case. Readers who hold they would plug in to the machine should notice whether their first impulse was not to do so, followed later by the thought that since only experiences could matter, the machine would be all right after all.
justice historical return
Justice in holdings is historical; it depends upon what actually has happened. We shall return to this point later.
giving-up order might
And although it might be best of all to be Socrates satisfied, having both happiness and depth, we would give up some happiness in order to gain the depth.
strong art powerful
The terminology of philosophical art is coercive: arguments are powerful and best when they are knockdown, arguments force you to a conclusion, if you believe the premisses you have to or must believe the conclusion, some arguments do not carry much punch, and so forth. A philosophical argument is an attempt to get someone to believe something, whether he wants to beleive it or not. A successful philosophical argument, a strong argument, forces someone to a belief.
past literature assumption
What hadn't been realized in the literature until now is that merely to describe how severely something has been tested in the past itself embodies inductive assumptions, even as a statement about the past.
suicide children philosophical
Examples one finds in the philosophical literature are somebody who's seen the trial of a child of theirs, where they're being proved guilty of some crime that would drive the parent into a depression, maybe a suicidal depression.