February, 2008

More on the Nozickian Minimal State

by Randy E. Barnett
The Conversation
February 20th, 2008

Julian Sanchez thinks that Nozick did make a descriptive argument for why a “monopolistic” dominant protection agency would develop. He may be right and I thank him for his response. But Nozick’s claim in the passages highlighted by Julian is far from transparent.  In the first passage he references, for example, Nozick describes the natural [...]

Read: More on the Nozickian Minimal State

Misunderstanding Nozick

by Randy E. Barnett
The Conversation
February 20th, 2008

In his reply to my post, Tony repeats a common mischaracterization of Nozick’s argument. In Anarchy, State and Utopia, Nozick made no prediction about the emergence of a dominant protection agency. Nor did he describe a mechanism for that emergence. Rather, his argument was that a dominant protection agency could emerge morally without violating anyone’s [...]

Read: Misunderstanding Nozick