Anarchy, State and Utopia-Robert Nozick y y y Individuals have rights and there are things no persons or groups without

violating their rights The nature of the state, tis legitimate functions and its justifications, is the central concern A minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, its justified that any more extensive state will violate persons rights not to be forced to do certain things and is unjustified and that the minimal state is inspiring as well as right The state may not cereous for the purpose of getting some citizens to aid others or in order to prohibit activities to ppl for their own good or protection Its fair to say that intellectual honesty has its dangers; arguments read perhaps at first in curious fascination may come to convince and even to seem natural and intuitive Treat seriously the anarchist claim that in the course of maintaining its monopoly on the use of force and protecting everyone within a territory, the state must violate individuals rights =immoral Argued that a state would arise from anarchy even though no one intended this or tried to bring it about, by a process which need not violate anyone s rights Issues brought to bear in investigating the nature and moral legitimacy of the state and of anarchy Part I justifies the minimal state Part II contends that no more extensive state can be justified Theory of justice (entitlement theory)=doesn t require any more extensive state, and use the apparatus of this theory to dissect and criticize other theories of distributive justice Part II closes with hypothetical description of how a more extensive state might arise, a tale designed to make a state unattractive even if the minimal state is a justifiable one Works of philosophy are written as though their authors believe them to be absolutely final word on their subject THE FRAMEWORK Utopia is the focus of so many different strands of aspiration that there must be many theoretical paths leading to it First route= ppl are different-temperament, interests, intellectual ability, aspirations, natural bent, spiritual quests, they diverge in values they have and have different weightings for the values they share o There is no reason to think that there is one community which will serve as ideal for all people and much reason to think there is not o For each person there is a kind of life that objectively is the best for them, ppl are similar enough so that there is one kind of life which objectively is best for them o Ppl are diff, so there is not one kind of life which objectively is the best for everyone o Different kinds of life are similar enough so that there is one kind of community which objectively is the best for everyone

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The different kinds of life are so different that there is not one kind of community which objectively is the best for everyone o Variety of kinds of life and there is not one community which objectively is best for the living of each selection set from the family of sets of not objectively inferior lives Utopian authors differ, no utopian author has everyone in his society leading exactly that same life, allocating exactly the same amount of time to exactly the same activities There will not be one kind of community existing ad one kind of life led in utopia, some communities will be more attractive than others, some will leave for others and some will stay in one Utopia is a framework for utopias, a place where people are at liberty to join together voluntarily to pursue and attempt to realize their own vision of the good life in the ideal community but where no one can impose his own utopian vision upon others-the environment in which ppl are free to do their own thing Third theoretical route to framework= based on fact that ppl are complex-webs of possible relationships among them o

TOTAL COMMUNITIES y y y There will be groups and communities covering all aspects of life, though limited in membership Some things about some aspects of life extend to everyone (various rights not to be violated. will find that covering all aspects of someones live to be insufficient. These people will desire a doubly total relationship that covers all ppl and all aspects of their lives (certain feelings of live, affection, willingness to help others)---primary joint goal= each subordinates himself to achieving this common goal, united as one and unselfish---individualistic socialism

UTOPIAN MEANS AND ENDS y y y Critics contend that utopias often believe that they can bring about new conditions and nurture forth their particular communities by voluntary actions within the existing structure of society Utopias hope to convince ppl of desirability and justice of the ideal pattern and of the injustice and unfairness of their special privileges, thereby getting them to act differently Critics says that utopians believe that even when the frame of existing society allows joint voluntary actions that would be sufficient to being about a great change in the society by those not benefiting from defects and injustices in the actual society Those who privileges are threatened will not intervene actively, violently, and coercively to crush the experiment and changes Critics assert that utopians are nave to think that even when the cooperation of the especially privileged is not required and when such persons will abstain from violently interfering in the process, that it is possible to establish through voluntary cooperation the particular experiment in the very different external environment, which often is hostile to the goals of the experiment There is a means of realizing various micro situations through the voluntary actions of persons in a free society. Whether ppl will choose to perform those actions is another matter

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In free system any large, popular, revolutionary movement should be able to bring about its ends by such a voluntary process. As more and more see how it works, more and more will wish to participate in or support it. And so it will grow, without being necessary to force everyone or a majority or anyone into the pattern. Some will object to reliance on the voluntary actions of persons, holding that people are now so corrupt that they will object to reliance on the voluntary actions of persons, holding that people are now so corrupt that they will not choose to cooperate voluntarily with experiments to est justice, virtue and good life. If they weren t corrupt (after they re not corrupt) they would (will) cooperate. So the argument continues, ppl must be forced to act in accordance with the good pattern, and persons trying to lead them along the bad old ways must be silenced. What is desired is an organization of society optimal for ppl who are fear less than ideal, optimal also for much better people and which is such that living under such organization itself tends make ppl better and more ideal. Believing with Tocqueville that it is only by being free that ppl will come to develop and exercise the virtues, capacities, responsibilities and judgments appropriate to free men, that being free encourages such development and that current ppl are not close to being so sunken in corruption as possibly to constitute an extreme exception to the voluntary framework is an appropriate. We assume that in the face of permissible voluntary actions of persons refusing any longer to have their rights violated, other persons whose illegitimate privileges are threatened will stand by peacefully Utopians want to make all of society over in accordance with one detailed plan, formulated in advance and never before approximated. Perfect society= static and rigid with no opportunity or expectation of change or progress and no opportunity for the inhabitants of society themselves to choose new patterns Utopians assume that the particular society they describe will operate without certain problems arising, that social mechanism and institutions will function as they predict, ppl will not act frm certain motives and interests. They wish to fix in advance all of the important social details, leaving undetermined only the trivial details about which they either don t care or which raise no interesting issues of principle. There will be problems about the role, if any , to be played by some central authority (protective association)-major role enforce the operation framework i.e-prevent some communities from invading and seizing others, their persons or assets It will adjudicate in some reasonable fashion conflicts between communities which cannot be settled by peaceful means. There is some set of principles obvious enough to be accepted by all men of good will, precise enough to give unambiguous guidance in particular situations, clear enough so that all will realize its dictates, complete enough to cover all problems which actually will arise. Enforcing an individual right to leave a community, will free system allow him to sell himself into slavery-framework should be fixed as voluntary

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HOW UTOPIA WORKS OUT Utopia is not just a society in which the framework is realized. It grows spontaneously from the individual choices of many people over a long period of time that will be worth speaking eloquently about. The utopian process is substituted for the utopian end state of other static theories of utopias. Many communities will achieve many different characters There is the framework of utopia, and there are the particular communities with the framework. Almost all of the literature on utopia is concerned with the character of the particular communities with the framework One community in which everyone is to live yet sympathizes with voluntary utopian experimentation and provides it with the background in which it can flower .