Robert Nozick (; November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino
University Professorship at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
,
["Robert Nozick, 1938–2002".]
''Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association'', November 2002: 76(2). and was president of the
American Philosophical Association
The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...
. He is best known for his book ''
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' is a 1974 book by the American political philosopher Robert Nozick. It won the 1975 US National Book Award in category Philosophy and Religion, has been translated into 11 languages, and was named one of the "100 m ...
'' (1974), a
libertarian
Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...
answer to
John Rawls
John Bordley Rawls (; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral philosophy, moral, legal philosophy, legal and Political philosophy, political philosopher in the Modern liberalism in the United States, modern liberal tradit ...
' ''
A Theory of Justice
''A Theory of Justice'' is a 1971 work of political philosophy and ethics by the philosopher John Rawls (1921–2002) in which the author attempts to provide a moral theory alternative to utilitarianism and that addresses the problem of distribu ...
'' (1971), in which Nozick proposes his
minimal state
A night-watchman state, also referred to as a minimal state or minarchy, whose proponents are known as minarchists, is a model of a state that is limited and minimal, whose functions depend on libertarian theory. Right-libertarians support it ...
as the only justifiable form of government. His later work ''
Philosophical Explanations'' (1981) advanced notable epistemological claims, namely his counterfactual theory of knowledge. It won
Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...
society's
Ralph Waldo Emerson Award the following year.
Nozick's other work involved ethics,
decision theory
Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability theory, probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probabilities, probability to model how individuals would behave Rationality, ratio ...
,
philosophy of mind
Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world.
The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...
,
metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...
and
epistemology
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...
. His final work before his death, ''
Invariances
''Invariances'' is a 2001 book by American philosopher Robert Nozick, his last book before his death in 2002.
Introduction
In the introduction, Nozick assumes "orthodox quantum mechanics" and draws inferences from it about indeterminism and nonl ...
'' (2001), introduced his theory of evolutionary
cosmology
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
, by which he argues invariances, and hence objectivity itself, emerged through evolution across
possible worlds
Possible Worlds may refer to:
* Possible worlds, concept in philosophy
* ''Possible Worlds'' (play), 1990 play by John Mighton
** ''Possible Worlds'' (film), 2000 film by Robert Lepage, based on the play
* Possible Worlds (studio)
* ''Possible ...
.
Personal life
Nozick was born in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
to a family of
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
descent. His mother was born Sophie Cohen, and his father was a Jew from a Russian
shtetl
or ( ; , ; Grammatical number#Overview, pl. ''shtetelekh'') is a Yiddish term for small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jews, Ashkenazi Jewish populations which Eastern European Jewry, existed in Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. The t ...
who had been born with the name Cohen and who ran a small business.
Nozick attended the public schools in Brooklyn. He was then educated at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
(
A.B. 1959, ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
''), where he studied with
Sidney Morgenbesser
Sidney Morgenbesser (September 22, 1921 – August 1, 2004) was an American philosopher and professor at Columbia University. He wrote little but is remembered by many for his philosophical witticisms.
Life and career
Sidney Morgenbesser was bo ...
;
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
(PhD 1963) under
Carl Hempel
Carl Gustav "Peter" Hempel (; ; January 8, 1905 – November 9, 1997) was a German writer, philosopher, logician, and epistemologist. He was a major figure in logical empiricism, a 20th-century movement in the philosophy of science. Hempel ...
; and at
Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
as a
Fulbright Scholar
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the peopl ...
(1963–1964).
At one point, Nozick joined the
Young People's Socialist League, and at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
he founded the local chapter of the
Student League for Industrial Democracy. He began to move away from socialist ideals when exposed to
Friedrich Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian-born British academic and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobe ...
's ''
The Constitution of Liberty'', claiming he "was pulled into libertarianism reluctantly" when he found himself unable to form satisfactory responses to libertarian arguments. Nozick was initiated into the Alpha-Tau chapter of the
Kappa Sigma Fraternity while at Columbia in 1956.
After receiving his undergraduate degree in 1959, he married Barbara Fierer. They had two children, Emily and David. The Nozicks eventually divorced; Nozick later married the poet
Gjertrud Schnackenberg.
Nozick died in 2002 after a prolonged struggle with
stomach cancer
Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a numb ...
. He was interred at
Mount Auburn Cemetery
Mount Auburn Cemetery, located in Cambridge and Watertown, Massachusetts, is the first rural or garden cemetery in the United States. It is the burial site of many prominent Boston Brahmins, and is a National Historic Landmark.
Dedicated in ...
in
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...
.
Career and works
Political philosophy
Nozick's first book, ''
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' is a 1974 book by the American political philosopher Robert Nozick. It won the 1975 US National Book Award in category Philosophy and Religion, has been translated into 11 languages, and was named one of the "100 m ...
'' (1974), argues that only a
minimal state limited to the functions of protection against "force, fraud, theft, and administering courts of law" can be justified, as any more extensive state would violate people's individual rights.
Nozick believed that a distribution of goods is just when brought about by
free exchange among consenting adults, trading from a baseline position where the principles of
entitlement theory
Entitlement theory is a theory of distributive justice and private property created by Robert Nozick in chapters 7 and 8 of his book '' Anarchy, State, and Utopia''. The theory is Nozick's attempt to describe "justice in holdings" (Nozick 1974:150 ...
are upheld. In one example, Nozick uses the example of basketball player
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman Chamberlain ( ; August21, 1936 – October12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player. Standing tall, he played Center (basketball), center in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 seasons. He was enshrin ...
to show that even when large
inequalities subsequently emerge from the processes of free transfer (i.e. paying extra money just to watch Wilt Chamberlain play), the resulting distributions are just so long as all consenting parties have freely consented to such exchanges.
''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' is often contrasted to
John Rawls
John Bordley Rawls (; February 21, 1921 – November 24, 2002) was an American moral philosophy, moral, legal philosophy, legal and Political philosophy, political philosopher in the Modern liberalism in the United States, modern liberal tradit ...
's ''
A Theory of Justice
''A Theory of Justice'' is a 1971 work of political philosophy and ethics by the philosopher John Rawls (1921–2002) in which the author attempts to provide a moral theory alternative to utilitarianism and that addresses the problem of distribu ...
'' in popular academic discourse, as it challenged the partial conclusion of Rawls's
difference principle, that "social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are to be of greatest benefit to the least-advantaged members of society".
Nozick's philosophy also claims to heritage from
John Locke
John Locke (; 29 August 1632 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) – 28 October 1704 (Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.)) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of the Enlightenment thi ...
's ''
Second Treatise on Government'' and seeks to ground Locke's state of nature, but breaks distinctly with Locke on the question of self-ownership by attempting to
secularize his doctrine of
natural law
Natural law (, ) is a Philosophy, philosophical and legal theory that posits the existence of a set of inherent laws derived from nature and universal moral principles, which are discoverable through reason. In ethics, natural law theory asserts ...
without accepting it. Instead, Nozick appealed to the second formulation of
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...
's
categorical imperative
The categorical imperative () is the central philosophical concept in the deontological Kantian ethics, moral philosophy of Immanuel Kant. Introduced in Kant's 1785 ''Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals'', it is a way of evaluating motivati ...
: that people should be treated as an end in themselves, not merely as a means to an end. Nozick terms this the 'separateness of persons', saying that "there is no social entity...there are only individual people", and that we ought to "respect and take account of the fact that
ach individualis a separate person".
Most controversially, Nozick argued that consistent application of libertarian self-ownership would allow for consensual, non-coercive
enslavement
Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
contracts between adults. He rejected the notion of
inalienable rights advanced by Locke and most contemporary capitalist-oriented libertarian academics, writing in ''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' that the typical notion of a "free system" would allow individuals to voluntarily enter into non-coercive
slave contracts.
''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' received a
National Book Award
The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...
in the
category of Philosophy and Religion in the year following its original publication.
["National Book Awards – 1975 . National Book Foundation]
. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
Thought experiments regarding utilitarianism
Early sections of ''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'', akin to the introduction of ''A Theory of Justice'', see Nozick implicitly join Rawls's attempts to discredit utilitarianism. Nozick's case differs somewhat in that it mainly targets hedonism and relies on a variety of thought experiments, although both works draw from Kantian principles.
Most famously, Nozick introduced the
experience machine in an attempt to show that
ethical hedonism
Ethical hedonism is a branch of hedonism, the philosophical theory that identifies pleasure as the highest good and the proper aim of human life. While hedonism can take many forms, ethical hedonism specifically refers to the normative claim that ...
is not truly what individuals desire, nor what we ought to desire:
Nozick claims that life in an experience machine would have no value, and provides several explanations as to why this might be, including (but not limited to): the want to do certain things, and not just have the experience of doing them; the want to actually become a certain sort of person; and that plugging into an experience machine limits us to a man-made reality.
Another thought experiment Nozick proposes is the
utility monster, designed to show that
average utilitarianism
Average and total utilitarianism (also called averagism and totalism) are variants of utilitarianism that seek to maximize the average or total amount of utility; following Henry Sidgwick's question, "Is it total or average happiness that we seek ...
could lead to a situation where the needs of the vast majority were sacrificed for one individual. In his exploration of deontological ethics and animal rights, Nozick coins the phrase "utilitarianism for animals, Kantianism for people", wherein the separateness of individual humans is acknowledged but the only moral metric assigned to animals is that of maximizing pleasure:
Before introducing the utility monster, Nozick raises a hypothetical scenario where someone might, "by some strange causal connection", kill 10,000 unowned cows painlessly by snapping their fingers, asking whether it would be morally wrong to do so. On the calculus of pleasure that "utilitarianism for animals, Kantianism for people" uses, assuming the death of these cows could be used to provide pleasure for humans in some way, then the (painless) deaths of the cows would be morally permissible as it has no negative impact upon the utilitarian equation.
Nozick later explicitly raises the example of utility monsters to "embarrass
tilitarian theory: since humans benefit from the mass sacrifice and consumption of animals, and also possess the ability to kill them painlessly (i.e., without any negative effect on the utilitarian calculation of net pleasure), it is permissible to humans to maximize their consumption of meat so long as they derive pleasure from it. Nozick takes issue with this as it makes animals "too subordinate" to humans, counter to his view that animals ought to "count for something".
Epistemology
In ''
Philosophical Explanations'' (1981), Nozick provided novel accounts of
knowledge
Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...
,
free will
Free will is generally understood as the capacity or ability of people to (a) choice, choose between different possible courses of Action (philosophy), action, (b) exercise control over their actions in a way that is necessary for moral respon ...
,
personal identity
Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of a person over time. Discussions regarding personal identity typically aim to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time ...
, the nature of
value, and the meaning of life. He also put forward an epistemological system which attempted to deal with both the
Gettier problem and those posed by
skepticism
Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...
. This highly influential argument eschewed
justification as a necessary requirement for knowledge.
Nozick gives four conditions for S's knowing that P (S=Subject / P=Proposition):
# P is true
# S believes that P
# If it were the case that (not-P), S would not believe that P
# If it were the case that P, S would believe that P
Nozick's third and fourth conditions are
counterfactuals
Counterfactual conditionals (also ''contrafactual'', ''subjunctive'' or ''X-marked'') are conditional sentences which discuss what would have been true under different circumstances, e.g. "If Peter believed in ghosts, he would be afraid to be he ...
. He called this the "tracking theory" of knowledge. Nozick believed the counterfactual conditionals bring out an important aspect of our intuitive grasp of knowledge: For any given fact, the believer's method (M) must reliably track the truth despite varying relevant conditions. In this way, Nozick's theory is similar to
reliabilism
Reliabilism, a category of theories in the philosophical discipline of epistemology, has been advanced as a theory both of justification and of knowledge. Process reliabilism has been used as an argument against philosophical skepticism, such as ...
. Due to certain counterexamples that could otherwise be raised against these counterfactual conditions, Nozick specified that:
- If P weren't the case and S were to use M to arrive at a belief whether or not P, then S wouldn't believe, via M, that P.
- If P were the case and S were to use M to arrive at a belief whether or not P, then S would believe, via M, that P.
A major feature of Nozick's theory of knowledge is his rejection of the
principle of deductive closure. This principle states that if S knows X and S knows that X implies Y, then S knows Y. Nozick's truth tracking conditions do not allow for the principle of deductive closure.
Later works
''
The Examined Life'' (1989), aimed towards a more general audience, explores themes of love, the impact of death, questions of faith, the nature of reality, and the meaning of life. The book takes its name from the quote by
Socrates
Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...
, that "the unexamined life is not worth living". In it, Nozick attempts to find meaning in everyday experiences, and considers how we might come to feel "more real". In this pursuit, Nozick discusses the death of his father, reappraises the experience machine, and proposes "the matrix of reality" as a means of understanding how individuals might better connect with reality in their own lives.
''
The Nature of Rationality'' (1993) presents a theory of practical reason that attempts to embellish classical decision theory. In this work, Nozick grapples with
Newcomb's problem and the
Prisoner's Dilemma
The prisoner's dilemma is a game theory thought experiment involving two rational agents, each of whom can either cooperate for mutual benefit or betray their partner ("defect") for individual gain. The dilemma arises from the fact that while def ...
, and introduces the concept of symbolic utility to explain how actions might symbolize certain ideas, rather than being carried out to maximize expected utility in the future.
''
Socratic Puzzles'' (1997) is a collection of Nozick's previous papers alongside some new essays. While the discussions are quite disparate, the essays generally draw from Nozick's previous interests in both politics and philosophy. Notably, this includes Nozick's 1983 review of ''
The Case for Animal Rights'' by
Tom Regan, where says animal rights activists are often considered "cranks" and appears to go back on the vegetarian position he previously maintained in ''Anarchy, State and Utopia''.
Nozick's final work, ''
Invariances
''Invariances'' is a 2001 book by American philosopher Robert Nozick, his last book before his death in 2002.
Introduction
In the introduction, Nozick assumes "orthodox quantum mechanics" and draws inferences from it about indeterminism and nonl ...
'' (2001), applies insights from physics and biology to questions of
objectivity in such areas as the nature of necessity and
moral value. Nozick introduces his theory of truth, in which he leans towards a
deflationary theory of truth, but argues that
objectivity arises through being invariant under various transformations. For example, space-time is a significant objective fact because an interval involving both temporal and spatial separation is invariant, whereas no simpler interval involving only temporal or only spatial separation is invariant under
Lorentz transformations
In physics, the Lorentz transformations are a six-parameter family of linear transformations from a coordinate frame in spacetime to another frame that moves at a constant velocity relative to the former. The respective inverse transformation ...
. Nozick argues that invariances, and hence objectivity itself, emerged through a theory of evolutionary cosmology across
possible worlds
Possible Worlds may refer to:
* Possible worlds, concept in philosophy
* ''Possible Worlds'' (play), 1990 play by John Mighton
** ''Possible Worlds'' (film), 2000 film by Robert Lepage, based on the play
* Possible Worlds (studio)
* ''Possible ...
.
Later reflections on libertarianism
Nozick pronounced some misgivings about libertarianism – specifically his own work ''Anarchy, State and Utopia'' – in his later publications. Some later editions of ''The Examined Life'' advertise this fact explicitly in the blurb, saying Nozick "refutes his earlier claims of libertarianism" in one of the book's essays, "The Zigzag of Politics". In the introduction of ''The Examined Life'', Nozick says his earlier works on political philosophy "now
eemseriously inadequate", and later repeats this claim in the first chapter of ''The Nature of Rationality''.
In these works, Nozick also praised political ideals which ran contrary to the arguments canvassed in ''Anarchy, State and Utopia''. In ''The Examined Life'', Nozick proposes wealth redistribution via an
inheritance tax
International tax law distinguishes between an estate tax and an inheritance tax. An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and pro ...
and upholds the value of
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy, also called Western-style democracy, or substantive democracy, is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberalism, liberal political philosophy. Common elements within a liberal dem ...
. In ''The Nature of Rationality'', Nozick calls
truth
Truth or verity is the Property (philosophy), property of being in accord with fact or reality.Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionarytruth, 2005 In everyday language, it is typically ascribed to things that aim to represent reality or otherwise cor ...
a
primary good, explicitly appropriating Rawls' ''A Theory of Justice''. In the same work, however, Nozick implies that
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...
laws are unjust, and later denigrates
Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
before vindicating capitalism, making reference to
Adam Smith
Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...
's ''
The Wealth of Nations
''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', usually referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is a book by the Scottish people, Scottish economist and moral philosophy, moral philosopher Adam Smith; ...
''.
Nozick also broke away from libertarian principles in his own personal life, invoking rent control laws against
Erich Segal – who was at one point Nozick's landlord – and winning over $30,000 in a settlement. Nozick later claimed to regret doing this, saying he was moved by "intense irritation" with Segal and his legal representatives at the time, and was quoted in an interview saying "sometimes you have to do what you have to do".
Some of Nozick's later works seem to endorse libertarian principles. In ''Invariances'', Nozick advances the "four layers of ethics", which at its core maintains an explicitly libertarian underpinning. In ''Socratic Puzzles'', Nozick republished some of his old essays with a libertarian grounding, such as "Coercion" and "On The Randian Argument", alongside new essays such as "On Austrian Methodology" and "Why Do Intellectuals Oppose Capitalism?". However, Nozick does allude to some continued reservations about libertarianism in its introduction, saying that "it is disconcerting to be known primarily for an early work".
Scholars and journalists have since debated what Nozick's true political position was before the end of his life. Writing for
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
,
Stephen Metcalf notes one of Nozick's core claims in ''The Examined Life'', that actions done through government serve as markers of "our human solidarity". Metcalf then postulates that Nozick felt this was threatened by
neoliberal
Neoliberalism is a political and economic ideology that advocates for free-market capitalism, which became dominant in policy-making from the late 20th century onward. The term has multiple, competing definitions, and is most often used pej ...
politics.
Libertarian journalist
Julian Sanchez, who interviewed Nozick shortly before his death, claims that Nozick "always thought of himself as a libertarian in a broad sense, right up to his final days, even as his views became somewhat less 'hardcore'".
Philosophical method
Nozick was sometimes admired for the exploratory style of his philosophizing, often content to raise tantalizing philosophical possibilities and then leave judgment to the reader. In his review of ''The Nature of Rationality'',
Anthony Gottlieb praised this style, noting its place in Nozick's approach to writing philosophy:
Jason Brennan has related this point to Nozick's "surprising amount of humility, at least in his writings". Brennan makes a point of showing how this enabled Nozick to reach surprising conclusions while also drawing attention to one of Nozick's more famous quotes which also made the headline of his
obituary
An obituary (wikt:obit#Etymology 2, obit for short) is an Article (publishing), article about a recently death, deceased person. Newspapers often publish obituaries as Article (publishing), news articles. Although obituaries tend to focus on p ...
in ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...
'', that "there is room for words on subjects other than last words".
Nozick was also notable for drawing from literature outside of philosophy, namely
economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
,
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
,
evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...
,
decision theory
Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability theory, probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probabilities, probability to model how individuals would behave Rationality, ratio ...
,
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
, and
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
, amongst other disciplines.
Bibliography
* ''
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
''Anarchy, State, and Utopia'' is a 1974 book by the American political philosopher Robert Nozick. It won the 1975 US National Book Award in category Philosophy and Religion, has been translated into 11 languages, and was named one of the "100 m ...
'' (1974)
* ''
Philosophical Explanations'' (1981)
* ''
The Examined Life'' (1989)
* ''
The Nature of Rationality'' (1993/1995)
* ''
Socratic Puzzles'' (1997)
* ''
Invariances: The Structure of the Objective World'' (2001/2003)
See also
*
American philosophy
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can neverthe ...
*
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics and civil liberties under the rule of law, with special emphasis on individual autonomy, limited governmen ...
*
List of American philosophers
American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can neverthe ...
*
List of liberal theorists
Individual contributors to classical liberalism and political liberalism are associated with philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement toward ...
*
Neoclassical liberalism
* ''
A Theory of Justice: The Musical!'' – in which a fictional Nozick is one of the characters
Notes
:a.Nozick's discussion of animal rights pre-dates
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...
's more comprehensive ''
Animal Liberation''. Singer's utilitarian position on animal rights was known to Nozick at the time, however, and he expresses misgivings about this in Chapter 3 (footnote 11) of ''Anarchy, State and Utopia''.
:b.From p.27 of ''The Nature of Rationality'': "On these grounds, one might claim that certain antidrug enforcement measures ''symbolize'' reducing the amount of drug use and that minimum wage laws ''symbolize'' helping the poor"
References
Further reading
*
* Frankel Paul, Ellen; Fred D. Miller, Jr. and Jeffrey Paul (eds.), (2004) ''Natural Rights Liberalism from Locke to Nozick'',
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
,
*
*
Mack, Eric (2014
Robert Nozick's Political Philosophy,
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') is a freely available online philosophy resource published and maintained by Stanford University, encompassing both an online encyclopedia of philosophy and peer-reviewed original publication ...
, June 22, 2014.
* Robinson, Dave & Groves, Judy (2003). ''Introducing Political Philosophy''. Icon Books. .
* Schaefer, David Lewis (2008
Robert Nozick and the Coast of Utopia,
The New York Sun
''The New York Sun'' is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative Online newspaper, news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) onlin ...
, April 30, 2008.
* Wolff, Jonathan (1991), ''Robert Nozick: Property, Justice, and the Minimal State.'' Polity Press.
External links
Robert Nozick: Political Philosophy– overview of Nozick in the ''
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia with around 900 articles about philosophy, philosophers, and related topics. The IEP publishes only peer review, peer-reviewed and blind-refereed original p ...
''
*
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