Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia is still influential today among right-wing (neo-)libertarian thinkers. The latter are engaged in the current debate on distributive justice, insistently defending the minimal state and the case against social justice on the grounds of inviolable individual rights. The premises of their defense are explicitly derived from Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Therefore, if one is interested in challenging the right-wing libertarian arguments today, one should be interested in revisiting Nozick, refuting the key elements of his theory. That is what this article does: it re-examines the formation of the moral dimension of Nozick's political theory. It argues that this dimension consists of the idea of absolute individual rights and is formed upon the premises of full self-ownership and the moral inviolability of persons. Both premises are problematical because they are abstracted from any epistemological principle of self-realization.
Archard, D. (1987). "The Marxist Ethic of Self-Realisation: Individuality and Community," in J.D.G. Evans (ed.), Moral Philosophy and Contemporary Problems. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Aristotle (1925). The Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3.
Arneson, R.J. (1991). "Lockean Self-Ownership: Towards a Demolition ," Political Studies39(1): 36-54.
4.
Avineri, S. and De-Shalit, A. (1992). Communitarianism and Individualism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5.
Barry, B. (2005). Why Social Justice Matters?Cambridge and Malden, MA: Polity .
6.
Browning, E.K. (2002). "The Case Against Income Redistribution," Public Finance Review30(6): 509-30.
7.
Campbell, T.D. (1990). "The Right to Private Property by Jeremy Waldron ," Journal of Law and Society17(2): 263-7.
8.
Casullo, A. (1992). "A Priori/A Posteriori," in J. Dancy and E. Sosa (eds), A Companion to Epistemology. London: Blackwell.
9.
Cohen, G.A. (1995). Self-Ownership, Freedom, and Equality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10.
Cohen, G.A. (2000). If You're an Egalitarian How Come You're So Rich? Cambridge, MA andLondon: Harvard University Press.
11.
Cohen, G.A. and Graham, K. (1990). "Self-Ownership, Communism and Equality," Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society64: 25-61.
12.
Dancy, J. (1985). An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology. Oxford: Blackwell.
13.
Dworkin, R.M. (1977). Taking Rights Seriously. London : Duckworth.
14.
Dworkin, R.M. (2002). Sovereign Virtue: The Theory and Practice of Equality . London and Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
15.
Elster, J. (1986). "Self-Realisation in Work and Politics: The Marxist Conception of the Good Life," in E.F. Paul, J. Paul, and F.D. Miller (eds), Marxism and Liberalism . Oxford: Blackwell.
16.
Fried, B.H. (2004). "Left Libertarianism: A Review Essay," Philosophy and Public Affairs32(1): 66-91.
17.
Fried, B.H. (2005). "Begging the Question with Style: Anarchy, State, and Utopia at Thirty Years" Social Philosophy and Policy22(1): 221-54.
18.
Gordon, G. (1988). Contemporary Social Philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell.
19.
Gough, J.M. (1956). John Locke's Political Philosophy. London: Clarendon Press.
20.
Grunebaum, J.O. (1987). Private Ownership. London and New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
21.
Hart, H.L.A. (1984). "Are there any Natural Rights?" in J. Waldron (ed.), Theories of Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22.
Hasnas, J. (2003). "Reflections on the Minimal State," Politics, Philosophy and Economics2(1): 115-28.
23.
Hasnas, J. (2005). "Towards a Theory of Empirical Natural Rights ," Social Philosophy and Policy22(1): 111-47.
24.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1991). The Encyclopaedia Logic. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett.
25.
Held, V. (1976). "John Locke on Robert Nozick," Social Research43: 168-95.
26.
Heller, R.F. et al. (2005). "Life Factors in Monozygotic and Dizygotic Twins," Genetic Epidemiology5(5): 311-21.
27.
Hobbes, T. (1991). Leviathan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
28.
Hohfeld, W.N. (1919). Fundamental Legal Conceptions. New Heaven, CT and London: Yale University Press.
29.
Hunter, B. (1992). "Empiricism," in J. Dancy and E. Sosa (eds), A Companion to Epistemology. London: Blackwell.
30.
Kant, I. (1991). The Metaphysics of Morals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
Kelley, D. (1984). "Life, Liberty and Property" in E.F. Paul, J. Paul , and F.D. Miller Jr (eds), Human Rights. Oxford: Blackwell .
32.
Kymlicka, W. (1990). Contemporary Political Philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
33.
Locke, J. (1988). Two Treatises of Government, 3rd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
34.
Lukes, S. (1991). "Equality and Liberty, Must they Conflict?" in D. Held (ed.), Political Theory Today. Oxford: Polity Press .
35.
Lyons, D. (1984). "Utility and Rights," in J. Waldron (ed.), Theories of Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
36.
McCartney, K., Harris, M.J., and Bernieri, F. (1990). "Growing Up and Growing Apart: A Developmental Meta-Analysis of Twin Studies," Psychological Bulletin107(2): 226-37.
37.
Mack, E. (2002a). "Self-Ownership, Marxism and Egalitarianism, Part I: Challenges to Historical Entitlement," Politics, Philosophy and Economics1(1): 75-108.
38.
Mack, E. (2002b). "Self-Ownership, Marxism and Egalitarianism, Part II: Challenges to Self-Ownership Thesis," Politics, Philosophy and Economics1(2): 237-76.
39.
Mack, E. (2005). "Prerogatives, Restrictions, and Rights" Social Philosophy and Policy22(1): 357-93.
40.
Nagel, T. (1975). "Libertarianism Without Foundations," Yale Law Journal85(1): 136-49.
41.
Nock, C.J. (1992). "Equal Freedom and Unequal Property: A Critique of Nozick's Libertarian Case," Canadian Journal of Political Science25(4): 677-95.
42.
Nozick, R. (1969). "Coercion," in S. Morgenbesser, P. Suppes, and M. White (eds), Philosophy, Science, and Method: Essays in Honor of Ernest Nagel. New York: St. Martin's Press.
43.
Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Oxford: Blackwell.
44.
Nozick, R. (1981). Philosophical Explanations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
45.
Nozick, R. (1982). "On the Randian Argument," in J. Paul (ed.), Reading Nozick. Oxford: Blackwell.
46.
Papaioannou, T. (2006). "Towards a Critique of the Moral Foundations of Intellectual Property Rights," Journal of Global Ethics2(1): 67-90.
47.
Patric, C.L. (2000). "Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Development of Cognitive Abilities: Evidence from the Field of Developmental Behavior Genetics," Journal of School Psychology38(1): 79-108.
48.
Rand, A. (1961). The Virtue of Selfishness. New York: Signet.
49.
Rawls, J. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
50.
Ritter, A. (1980). Anarchism: A Theoretical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
51.
Scanlon, T. (1982). "Nozick on Rights, Liberty, and Property," in J. Paul (ed.), Reading Nozick . Oxford: Blackwell.
52.
Sen, A.K. (1979). "Utilitarianism and Welfarism," Journal of Philosophy76(9): 463-89.
53.
Sen, A.K. (1990). "Justice: Means versus Freedoms," Philosophy and Public Affairs19: 111-21.
54.
Sen, A.K. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
55.
Steiner, H. (1977). "The Structure of a Set of Compossible Rights ," Journal of Philosophy74(12): 767-75.
56.
Swanton, C. (1983). "Outline of an Institutionist Response to Nozick ," Politics18(2): 68-75.
57.
Taliaferro, C. (1998). Contemporary Philosophy of Religion. Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell .
58.
Taylor, C. (1985). Philosophy and the Human Sciences, Philosophical Papers 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
59.
Tucker, B.R. (1911). State Socialism and Anarchism. London: A.C. Fifield.
60.
Vallentyne, P., Steiner, H., and Otsuka, M. (2005). "Why Left-Libertarianism is not Incoherent, Indeterminate, or Irrelevant: A Reply to Fried" Philosophy and Public Affairs33(2): 201-15.
61.
Van Parijs, P. (1995). Real Freedom for All. Oxford : Oxford University Press.
62.
Van Parijs, P. (2001). "A Basic Income for All," in J. Cohen and J. Rogers (eds), What's Wrong with a Free Lunch?Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
63.
Waldron, J., ed. (1984). Theories of Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
64.
Waldron, J. (1993). "A Right-Based Critique of Constitutional Rights ," Oxford Journal of Legal Studies13(1): 18-51.
65.
Wolff, J. (1991a). Robert Nozick: Property, Justice and the Minimal State. Cambridge: Polity Press.
66.
Wolff, J. (1991b). "What is the Problem of Political Obligation? " Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society91: 153-69.
67.
Wolff, J. (1997). "Freedom, Liberty and Property," Critical Review11(3): 345-57.
