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I have painstakingly scanned (as in: put on a scanner to make a PDF) 352 pages of a hard copy version of Nozick's 1963 dissertation The Normative Theory of Individual Choice.

I don't have page 57.

I got the paperwork from ProQuest. I recall that they checked and found that page 57 isn't on the microfilm.

So, I ask: does anybody have page 57?

There is a possibility that Nozick miss-numbered the pages. I'll give you the last and first bits of pages 56 and 58. What do you think (especially of the double "that")?

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If you happen to have the 1990 book The Normative Theory of Individual Choice, which is out-of-print, I would really appreciate it if you'd have a look for comparison and whether there is a page missing from the dissertation or not. In the dissertation, the section is named "Section 3: On a Tentative Account of Preference and Indifference".

NB: The work has some historical significance as it may very well contain the first definition of the concept that later became known as "common knowledge".

So far as I know, the first statement that game theory needed this infinite layering of knowledge appeared in my doctoral dissertation, The Normative Theory of Individual Choice (Princeton University, 1963), published by Garland Publishing (New York, 1990), pp. 273-274. [...]

Invariances: The Structure of the Objective World, p. 375n60

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  • Does Nozick have an archive somewhere in US? I know he passed away about ten years ago, so maybe his stuff is still with his family? As a first step I would try to reach someone who has access to Nozick's nachlass. Maybe his many students (some, now professors) will know something about that. – Hunan Rostomyan Oct 26 '13 at 20:06
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    @HunanRostomyan Not that I know of. Two years ago, I reached out to Feser, Schmidtz, Bader, Steinbauer, and Schaefer. Just to obtain the dissertation. Those who replied didn't have it and had no suggestions. (Very helpful university librarians pointed me towards ProQuest.) –  Oct 26 '13 at 20:18
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    It looks like the book is in many libraries throughout the country, especially university libraries. Try checking if there's one near you: http://www.worldcat.org/title/normative-theory-of-individual-choice/oclc/20797200&referer=brief_results – Keshav Srinivasan Oct 26 '13 at 20:51
  • @KeshavSrinivasan Thanks. I might do that, if I'm in the neighbourhood. There seem to be two copies (of the book, not the dissertation) in _my_ country. :) So, for the time being, I trust on Philosophy SE users' personal libraries. (If it doesn't work out, then I'll contact one of those librarians. Thanks again.) –  Oct 26 '13 at 20:58
  • I have some overdue books to return to UCLA; according to Keshav's link they have a copy of the dissertation. I'll check it out and let you know what's going on according to their version. – Hunan Rostomyan Oct 27 '13 at 11:20
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    That would be very nice! It is about 9 pages into the above-mentioned section 3 of the chapter "Preference and Indifference". (Probably much less if they redid the type for the book.) If you have a smart phone, it could take a few snapshots of the pages, CIA style. :) –  Oct 27 '13 at 11:36
  • I checked my library, but it does not have it. – Lukas Oct 27 '13 at 18:51
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    I hope the missing page is a treasure map. – Baby Dragon Oct 31 '13 at 03:52
  • There are two copies of the book in my university library - I'll take a look sometime in the next two days. (According to WorldCat then my uni is the only one in the UK to have copies!) – 8128 Dec 17 '13 at 17:50
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about philosophical *thought*, but about a book. –  Dec 31 '15 at 20:52
  • I'm voting to leave open, because while it is about a book, it is about a book of philosophy, and is about someone trying to do basic philosophical scholarly work. – James Kingsbery Jan 06 '16 at 15:00

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Heading into the library: Bodleian Old Schools Quadrangle, Oxford

The book awaits, retrieved from a 6.5 million book warehouse: The Normative Theory of Individual Choice

Excitement as page 57 is present: Page 57!

Compared to the consecutive pages, the page itself is rather hard to read. My first thought was that when compiling the book, it had been retrieved from a different source. But there are more similarly unclear pages later in the book, so that doesn't particularly fit with it being the one page missing from ProQuest.

Top half of page 57 Bottom half of page 57

(I do have a few more photos if you want help deciphering, but to be honest, I think most of the problems will be with the actual book, not my photography.)

8128
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  • @NickKidman It wasn't exactly necessary, but it felt like a dramatic answer, so I decided to go for it :D (was also the first time I'd recalled a book from the stack/warehouse, so was doubly exciting for me) – 8128 Dec 20 '13 at 17:12
  • are you whoever asked the question? –  Jan 02 '16 at 11:27