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A Critique Of Robert Nozick's Political Philosophy
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Robert Nozick (1938-2002) was an American philosopher, best known for his rigorous defense of libertarianism in his first major work, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974). During his high school and college years, Nozick was a member of the student new left and an enthusiastic socialist. At Columbia, he helped to found a campus branch of the league for industrial democracy. While in graduate school, he read works by libertarian thinkers such as F. A. Hayek and Ludwig Von Mises, and his political views began to change. His conversion to libertarianism culminated in 1974 with the publication of Anarchy, State, and Utopia, a closely argued and highly original defense of the libertarian “minimal state†and a critique of the social-democratic liberalism of John Rowls.
The main body of this work falls into four parts; introduction, Nozick on moral right Nozick’s minimal state and appraisal of Robert Nozick political philosophy.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Nozick’s natural rights – particularly the right of self-ownership and the consequent right to the fruit’s of one’s labour present an obvious problems if we desire any state at all, no matter how minimal.
1.2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The objective of this work is to look at moral rights and side constraints, state of nature rights, foundation of rights, the attenuation of rights, the minimal state versus individualist anarchy, the minimal state, the challenge of individual anarchism, response to the anarchist challenges, justice holdings, the historical entitlement doctrine about justice in holding, the critique of end state and patterned principle, Nozick’s Lockean Proviso, the rectification of historical is justice and utopia.
1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
Nozick’s political philosophy is researchable because of the problem that usually surround the issue of right. In most case, some government try to intervene with individual right. A good example could be seen in Nigeria, where individual rights to religion, life, speech etc is often been constrained by state coercive power. Based on this, Nozick’s political philosophy is researchable on the ground that individuals have rights, and there are thing no person or group may do without violating this rights.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Anarchy, state, and utopia, these works essentially revived the discipline of political philosophy within the analytic school, whose practitioners had, until Nozick came along, largely neglected it. Nozick’s also revived interest in the notion of rights as being central to political theory, and it did so in the service of another idea that had been long neglected within academic political thoughts, namely libertinism.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
It is important to point out that although we are working in Robert Nozick’s political philosophy, we are however working specifically at Nozick’s natural rights as well as to criticize some view made by Nozick in anarchism, state and utopia.
1.6 OVERVIEW OF NOZICK’S POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
The main purpose of Anarchy, State and Utopia is to show that the minimal state, is morally justified. By a minimal state Nozick means a state that function essentially as a “Night Watchmanâ€, with powers limited to those necessary to protect citizen against violence, theft, and fraud. By arguing that the minimal is justified, Nozick seeks to refute anarchism which opposes any state whatever, by arguing that no more than the minimal state is justified Nozick seek to refute modern forms of liberalism as well as socialism and others leftist ideologies which contend that, in addition to its power, as a night watchman, the state should have the powers to regulate the economic activities of citizens to regulate the economic activities of citizens to redistribute wealth in the direction of greater equality, and to provide social services such as education and health care.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
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