Reading Nozick: Essays on Anarchy, State, and Utopia

by Jeffrey Paul, Robert Nozick

Genres: Philosophy, Politics

418 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Otto Lehto · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy collection of articles, both critical and sympathetic, about Nozick's "Anarchy, State & Utopia". It features very noteworthy philosophers (some of the best, in fact): Peter Singer, Samuel Scheffler, Thomas Scanlon, Hillel Steiner...

These were written at the time of the original publication of Nozick's now-classic book, and it is clear it was immediately seen as such, even though his basic position - and the "entitlement theory" - gets pummeled pretty heavily.

It remains one of the great mysteries why Nozick never deigned to reply in detail to his fierce but worthy critics.

Maybe an updated "2.0" version of Nozick's theory might have become a true challenger to Rawls's hegemony. As it is, Nozick's theory remains academically marginalized and clearly flawed, but still one of the most brilliant and fruitful attempts of the 20th Century at a defence of free market capitalism.

[Craig Bolton]

"Reading Nozick: Essays on Anarchy, State and Utopia by Jeffrey Paul (1982)"