Anarchy, State, and Utopia: An Advanced Guide

243 Pages·2015·1.05 MB·English

by  Lester H. Hunt

Anarchy, State, and Utopia
Though I heard him speak several times, I only met Robert Nozick once,
and spent only one evening with him. In this far too brief acquaintance
he impressed me as a person who was much as you see him in his writ-
ings: not merely brilliant but also charming and a delight to know. I
would like to dedicate this little book to his memory.
Als ik kan.
Anarchy, State, and Utopia
An Advanced Guide
Lester H. Hunt
This edition first published 2015
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Hunt, Lester H., 1946–
Anarchy, state, and utopia : an advanced guide / Lester H. Hunt.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-67501-4 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-118-88047-0 (paperback) 1. Nozick,
Robert. Anarchy, state, and utopia. 2. State, The. 3. Anarchism. 4. Utopias. I. Title.
JC571.H795 2015
320.101–dc23
2015001990
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: © Rike / iStockphoto
Set in 10/12.5pt Sabon by SPi Global, Pondicherry, India
1 2015
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 Nozick’s Introduction and Preface 1
1. Why Read a Book about a Book? 1
2. The Preface 4
2 Ethical Bearings 9
1. Foundations, Such as They Are 9
2. Moral Constraints and Moral Goals 11
3. Why Side Constraints? 16
4. The “Formal Argument” 20
5. What Are Constraints Based On? 27
6. Constraints and Animals 32
3 The Experience Machine 40
1. What Is the Argument Here? 40
2. Some Criticisms 44
4 Why State of Nature Theory? 54
1. Grounding Political Philosophy 54
2. Explanatory Political Theory 57
3. Potential Fundamental Explanations of a Realm 60
4. Law- and Fact-Defective Potential Explanations 65
5 The Invisible Hand and the Justification of the State 70
1. What Needs to Be Shown? 70
2. The Invisible Hand 71
3. The Dominant Protective Association 74
4. What Is the Argument, so far, Supposed to Show? 75
5. Does the Argument Succeed? 76
6 Risk, Fear, and Procedural Rights 85
1. The Minimal State, Ultraminimal State, and the Dominant
Protective Association 85
2. General Outlines of the Argument 87
Contents
3. Dividing the Benefits of Exchange 89
4. Fear and Victim Compensation 92
5. The Risk Argument 96
6. Preemptive Attack 99
7. Procedural Rights 103
8. The Principle of Compensation 107
9. Unproductive Exchange and Explaining Why Blackmail
Is Wrong 111
10. Assessing the Unproductive Exchange Argument 114
11. Conclusion 117
7 Has the Dominant Protective Association Become a State? 125
1. What Does the Argument Prove, if Successful? 125
2. The Monopoly of Force 130
3. Protecting Everyone 132
4. Defining the State 137
5. How the State Functions 140
6. Is the DPA’s Failure to Claim Legitimacy a Deficiency? 146
8 Distributive Justice 154
1. Some Terminology and Basic Concepts 154
2. The Entitlement View 158
3. A Taxonomy of Principles 159
4. The Adventures of Wilt Chamberlain 162
5. Assessing Nozick’s Arguments 165
6. The Problem 173
7. A Possible Solution 175
8. The Proviso 181
9. Where is the Baseline? 184
10. Why this Proviso? 187
11. Taxation, Slavery, and Demoktesis 192
9 The Search for Utopia 200
1. Introduction 200
2. An Unusual Sort of Utopianism 200
3. Two More Conditions 206
4. Projecting the Model 207
5. The Three Paths 209
6. Would We Utopianize? 212
7. A Stability Problem 214
8. The Prospects for Utopia in the Framework’s Filter 219
Index 225
vi
Acknowledgments
Much of the writing of this book was done while on sabbatical leave
from the University of Wisconsin at Madison during the fall of 2012.
I thank the university for this much needed help. Of intellectual debts my
greatest by far is to the many students, graduate and undergraduate, with
whom I have discussed these issues since the spring of 1978 at the
University of Pittsburgh. I thank one of these by name in an endnote, but
I owe a similar debt to others, whom I cannot thank simply because
I cannot sort out their contributions and attach names to them. I have
also sharpened my thinking on a number of relevant points by discussing
them with Nathaniel Hunt. Thanks are due to Molly Gardner for serving
stint as my research assistant and to Deborah Katz Hunt, Nathaniel Hunt,
and Joanna Pyke for proofreading and copyediting work. I would also
like to thank the lifeguards at the Fireman’s Park Swimming Beach on
beautiful Goose Pond in Verona, Wisconsin for ignoring the man sitting
under a tree and writing on his laptop during the summers of 2011–2014,
and to the librarians at the Oregon Public Library in Oregon, Wisconsin
for leaving in peace the one who was quietly writing in a corner of
the library day after day during that same stretch of years. Perhaps it is
needless to add that in both cases I was that man.