Questions tagged [nozick]

Robert Nozick (1938 - 2002) was an American philosopher.

Robert Nozick (1938 - 2002) was an American philosopher. His work involved , , , and .

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Is Nozick's Criticism of Rawls correct?

When Nozick says distributive justice 'marks a shift from the classical liberal notion of self ownership to a notion of property rights in others', is this a fair criticism of Rawls and distributive justice?
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How would Robert Nozick and Ayn Rand respond to the following moral dilemma?

Consider the following scenario: In a remote isolated village, there is a family with a sick infant, who desperately and urgently needs a specific type of medicine. They have no way of procuring it in time, since the closest pharmacy is 500 Km…
Alexander S King
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How does Robert Nozick explain the Gettier problem?

Nozick agrees that the Gettier counterexamples to the JTB analysis of knowledge are cases where someone has a JTB but does not know. What is his explanation of what has gone wrong in those cases? Specifically what conditions in Nozick’s account of…
Kevin Davis
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Does anyone have the missing page 57 of Nozick's dissertation?

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…
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Do libertarians like Robert Nozick and Ayn Rand agree with the idea of enforcing intellectual property?

How do hardline libertarians like Nozick and Rand consider the question intellectual property and monopolies through patents? On one hand, it seem to me that they would support the concept, given the importance they place on the freedom to do as…
Alexander S King
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Libertarianism and scarcity

Can anyone share some source information about any notable libertarian positions involving those occasions where scarcity exists only due to a localized scenario; i.e. If Person A is dying of thirst, and Person B has a bottle of water available - is…
Eliot G York
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How does Nozick's analysis of knowledge evade brain in a vat counterexamples?

Note: I had posted this a day ago, but I hadn't formulated it very clearly. I still recognize that the counter-example is probably not very strong, but I'm wondering where it is wrong. Any help is appreciated! Nozick's sensitivity definition of…
Jacob Sloat
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What does Nozick exactly say in his Demoktesis argument?

I know Wikipedia is not an excellent reference, but I quote from Wikipedia: Demoktesis is a thought-experiment designed to show the incompatibility of democracy with libertarianism in general and the entitlement theory specifically. People…
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Mill's Proof and Nozick's Experience Machine

I'm trying to grasp how Mill's claim that the only good is happiness/pleasure is able to respond to Nozick's though experiment. Humans strive for virtue and other goods only if they are associated with the natural and original tendency to seek…
Scb
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Why does Nozick rely on closest possible world in his tracking theory?

According to the truth-tracking theory of Nozick, S knows that P iff (1) P is True, (2) S believes that P, (3) If P were not True, S would not believe that P, and (4) If P were True, S would believe that P But when explaining the third…
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Why does Hart find Nozick's refutation of utilitarianism paradoxical?

Justice: A Beginner's Guide (2017) by Raymond Wacks. p. 79.     Some find his refutation of utilitarianism unfounded. H.L.A. Hart describes it as paradoxical, because it yields an outcome that is indistinguishable from one of the least…
user8572
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Nozick's truth tracking theory?

I simply just do not understand this concept, everything from the idea of close possible worlds to the counterfactual conditions. So, 1. P is true. 2. You believe that P (following the famous "fake barn county" example, P is true because Henry is…
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What kind of conditional does Nozick use in his theory of knowledge?

Knowledge is traditionally defined as justified true belief: in order for S to know P, S must believe P, P must be true, and S must be justified in believing P. Now this definition has been criticized by invoking various "Gettier cases", supposed…
Keshav Srinivasan
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Which distribution is allowed by Rawls's difference principle?

Let's say we have the following different distributions of monetary wealth possible for a society. Here, LAG := Least Advantaged Group, OG := Ordinary group, MAG := Most Advantaged…
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Understanding Rawls and Nozick

Am I correct in thinking that Rawls and Nozick both offer theories of justice and that both allow for differences in the distribution of wealth ? If they agree in this, what is the decisive divergence between them ? I am aware of Rawls' two…
Flow
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