An American philosopher and Rawls's colleague at Harvard, who answered his theory of justice with Anarchy, State, and Utopia. He argued that individuals have strong rights, which the State may not violate even to redistribute wealth. He was a restless thinker who also wrote on knowledge, personal identity, and the meaning of life.
Core ideas
Only a minimal State, limited to protecting against force and fraud, is just
A distribution is just if it results from legitimate exchanges and acquisitions
Persons are ends in themselves and cannot be used for the ends of others
The tradition: Libertarian
Libertarianism defends maximum individual liberty and property, with the State reduced to the minimum. Nozick gave this position its best-known philosophical formulation.
