Robert Nozick, 1938–2002

Ask a nonlibertarian academic for the title of a libertarian book. If they’ve heard of any, it will be Harvard Philosopher Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia, the winner of the 1975 National Book Award. Nozick’s libertarianism was heavily influenced by the antistatist radicals of Murray Rothbard’s circle, but Nozick was no Rothbardian. His book defended the existence of the state as both inevitable and necessary to liberty.

Rothbard’s reply goes straight to the heart of the matter:

Robert Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia is an “invisible hand” variant of a Lockean contractarian attempt to justify the State, or at least a minimal State confined to the functions of protection.

Beginning with a free-market anarchist state of nature, Nozick portrays the State as emerging, by an invisible hand process that violates no one’s rights, first as a dominant protective agency, then to an “ultraminimal state,” and then finally to a minimal state.

Before embarking on a detailed critique of the various Nozickian stages, let us consider several grave fallacies in Nozick’s conception itself, each of which would in itself be sufficient to refute his attempt to justify the State.

FULL ARTICLE

From FEE:

The Goal Is Freedom: Ersatz School Choice
11/9/2007
“Vouchers go down in crushing defeat” That headline thundered from Wednesday’s Salt Lake City Tribune, as it announced that more than 60 percent of Utahans who voted on whether to uphold the statewide school-voucher program said no. It was a big setback for the voucher movement. The Utah legislature had approved the program by one vote. But the teachers’ union, which opposes vouchers, gathered enough signatures to put the question to the voters. It poured a ton of money into its successful effort to have the people veto the law. This was the tenth time in over 30 years that voters have defeated school vouchers or education tax credits, says the National School Boards Association. It may not look like a win for the cause of educational freedom, but in the long run it might be. That depends on what we do about it. More…

A NEW article by Sheldon Richman

Lew Rockwell writes:

Back in the 19th century, there were many people who wanted inflation: bankers, debtors, and the government. What a surprise! Who has an interest in sound money? Consumers, savers, and liberty-loving citizens. This is the essential conflict. Are we going to have a monetary regime rooted in robbery, or one rooted in honesty?

– “The Dollar Crisis”