Companion to Nozick's "Anarchy, State, and Utopia"

The Cambridge Companion to Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia

edited by Ralf M. Bader & John Meadowcroft

(Cambridge University Press, December 2011)

332 pages


Description

Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) is recognised as a classic of modern political philosophy. Along with John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (1971), it is widely credited with breathing new life into the discipline in the second half of the twentieth century. This Companion presents a balanced and comprehensive assessment of Nozick's contribution to political philosophy. In engaging and accessible chapters, the contributors analyse Nozick's ideas from a variety of perspectives and explore neglected areas of the work such as his discussion of anarchism and his theory of utopia. Their detailed and illuminating picture of Anarchy, State, and Utopia, its impact and its enduring influence will be invaluable to students and scholars in both political philosophy and political theory.

Contents

Introduction - Ralf M. Bader & John Meadowcroft
[preview]

Part I. Morality

1. Side Constraints, Lockean Individual Rights, and the Moral Basis of Libertarianism - Richard Arneson
2. Are Deontological Constraints Irrational? Michael Otsuka
3. What We Learn from the Experience Machine - Fred Feldman [draft]

Part II. Anarchy

4. Nozickian Arguments for the More-than-Minimal State - Eric Mack
5. Explanation, Justification, and Emergent Properties - Gerald Gaus

Part III. State

6. The Right to Distribute - David Schmidtz
7. Nozick's Libertarian Theory of Justice - Peter Vallentyne
8. Does Nozick have a Theory of Property Rights? Barbara Fried
9. Nozick's Critique of Rawls - John Meadowcroft

Part IV. Utopia

10. The Framework for Utopia - Ralf M. Bader [link here]
11. E Pluribus Plurum – How to Fail to Get to Utopia in Spite of Really Trying - Chandran Kukathas [abstract].

Further information on the book here.

Ralf M. Bader is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy, New York University

John Meadowcroft is Lecturer in Public Policy at King's College London. He is the author of "James M. Buchanan" (Continuum, 2011).