Nozicks Anarchy State and Utopia
In Nozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia he attempts to prove that a state is only legitimate if it has powers limited to only enforcing the rights of a person that they could enforce themselves in the “state of nature”. ... These rights are negative rights, that is to say that they are rights of non-interference, not positive rights to seek aid or assistance form the state or from others. Nozick believes that the minimal state can arise though legitimate means from the state of nature and that no one, i. ... individualist anarchists, would or should have a problem with this state. However, there are several weak points in his arguments that leave some doubt as to whether the minimal state is in fact legitimate, and whether a large, more comprehensive “modern state” can exist legitimately. In Anarchy, State, and Utopia Nozick takes a Lockean view of human nature. ... Hardly seems like Utopia to me. In Nozick’s argument for a minimal state, he first attempts to explain how people in a “state of nature” could, through legitimate transfers or rights, develop what he calls a “dominant protective agency”. Nozick says that when in a “state of nature” people act to defend their rights by themselves. ... Just as each of its members had rights in the “state of nature”, so does the DPA have these same rights through legitimate transfer of power. ... While Nozick’s progression from one stage to another makes sense, like many other arguments in Anarchy, State, and Utopia it is based on a number of assumptions. ... According to Nozick, the “ultra-minimal” state is a step above the DAP and a step below the minimal state. ... but it also prohibits all use of force except in immediate self-defense, the ultra-minimal state has a monopoly on force. It differs from the minimal state in that it only provides protection for those who have paid for its services. The minimal state then has some form of redistributive power to see that even those who cannot pay for its services are protected. A state, according to Nozick, is an organization that enforces the rights of all the people in a set area.