Robert Nozick
An American philosopher whose 'Anarchy, State, and Utopia' provided a powerful defense of libertarianism, arguing for a minimal state and individual rights.
Quotes by Robert Nozick
Individuals have rights, and there are things no person or group may do to them (without violating their rights). So strong and far-reaching are these rights that they raise the question of what, if anything, the state and its officials may do.
A minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, and enforcement of contracts, is justified; any more extensive state violates people's rights.
The entitlement theory of justice in holdings is historical; whether a distribution is just depends upon how it came about.
No state more extensive than the minimal state can be justified.
Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor.
The minimal state is inspiring as well as right.
The state may not use its coercive apparatus for the purpose of getting some citizens to aid others.
There is no social entity with a good that undergoes some sacrifice for its own good. There are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individual lives.
The fact that a person is more talented does not mean that he has a right to a greater share of the social product.
The world is not a single pie to be divided up.
The entitlement theory of justice is not a patterned theory.
A distribution is just if it arises from another just distribution by legitimate means.
The minimal state treats us as inviolate individuals, who may not be used in certain ways by others as means or tools or instruments or resources.
The question of whether a state is legitimate is not the question of whether it is good.
The state's monopoly on the use of force is legitimate only if it arises from a dominant protective association.
The state may not force people to contribute to the welfare of others.
The state is justified only if it is a minimal state.
The state does not have a right to redistribute wealth.
The state has no right to compel individuals to engage in activities that they do not wish to engage in.
The state's function is to protect rights, not to provide welfare.