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
wise sensitive-person people
Is there really someone who, searching for a group of wise and sensitive persons to regulate him for his own good, would choose that group of people that constitute the membership of both houses of Congress?
mean arise distribution
A distribution is just if it arises from another just distribution by legitimate means.
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.
philosophy ideas interesting
It is, from another angle, an attack on requiring proof in philosophy. And it's also the case, I guess, that my temperament is to like interesting, new, bold ideas, and to try and generate them.
knowing perspective fundamentals
Wisdom is not just knowing fundamental truths, if these are unconnected with the guidance of life or with a perspective on its meaning. If the deep truths physicists describe about the origin and functioning of the universe have little practical import and do not change our picture of the meaning of the universe and our place within it, then knowing them would not count as wisdom.
justified states
No state more extensive than the minimal state can be justified.
struggle winning ifs-and
Some communities will be abandoned, others will struggle along, others will split, others will flourish, gain members, and be duplicated elsewhere. Each community must win and hold the voluntary adherence of its members. No pattern is imposed on everyone, and the result will be one pattern if and only if everyone voluntarily chooses to live in accordance with that pattern of community.
imagination philosopher surprise
The scientists often have more unfettered imaginations than current philosophers do. Relativity theory came as a complete surprise to philosophers, and so did quantum mechanics, and so did other things.
government regulation adults
The trouble with government regulation of the market is that it prohibits capitalistic acts between consenting adults.
adults socialist capitalist
The socialist society would have to forbid capitalist acts between consenting adults.
matter feels our-lives
What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?
giving political use
The illegitimate use of a state by economic interests for their own ends is based upon a preexisting illegitimate power of the state to enrich some persons at the expense of others. Eliminate that illegitimate power of giving differential economic benefits and you eliminate or drastically restrict the motive for wanting political influence.
distance mean light
Our principles fix what our life stands for, our aims create the light our life is bathed in, and our rationality, both individual and coordinate, defines and symbolizes the distance we have come from mere animality. It is by these means that our lives come to more than what they instrumentally yield. And by meaning more, our lives yield more.
liberty earning taxation
Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor.