Robert Nozick

From dKosopedia

Category: People

The most brilliant modern philosophical defender of libertarianism. He wrote his book Anarchy, State and Utopia as a response to the liberal theory of John Rawls.

Nozick's theory is founded on the natural rights he believes are possessed by all humankind -- specifically, the right to property. Nozick believes that the role of the state should consist in little more than defensive military expenditure, with the provision of other social goods left to the free market. While he accepts social inequality as the just reward for the exercise of talent and for the acceptance of financial risk, he concedes that this depends on an equal starting position for all.