Category Archives: Uncategorized
Conclusion of ASU
It’s time to conclude our review of Chapter 10, the last chapter of Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Nozick closes this chapter by restating his original vision of the dual nature of his conception of utopia (p. 332): “There is the … Continue reading
Paging Professor Nozick: C’mon man!
Thus far, we have reviewed the first eight (of eleven) subsections of Chapter 10 of ASU. Here, we review the ninth subsection (pp. 326-331), where Nozick finally gets around to addressing the elephant in the utopian room: who will resolve … Continue reading
Some problems with the utopian framework
Nozick spots several problems with his utopian framework in the middle sections of Chapter 10 of ASU (pp. 320-325). One problem is theoretical: his framework for utopia appears to be internally inconsistent. On the one hand, the overall framework is … Continue reading
Nozick’s cavemen
Nozick compares and contrasts “design devices” with “filter devices” in the fourth and fifth subsections of Chapter 10 of ASU (pp. 312-320). (He also appears to take a parting shot at Rawls. More on that below.) Here, Nozick temporarily concedes, … Continue reading
The problem with utopia
In the third subsection of Chapter 10 of ASU (pp. 309-312), Nozick provides two additional reasons why a universal utopia for everyone is an impossible fantasy. The first reason is “the fact that people are different” and have different values … Continue reading
Possible worlds versus the actual world
We restated Robert Nozick’s mental model of imaginary worlds in our previous post. Next, in the second subsection of Chapter 10 of ASU (pp. 307-309), Nozick hits the pause button to compare and contrast his model of possible worlds with … Continue reading
Finding utopia
Nozick builds a beautiful mental model in the first subsection of Chapter 10 of ASU (pp. 297-306). This simple model has the following parts (p. 299): Universal imagining rights. “Imagine a possible world in which to live; this world need … Continue reading
Overview of Chapter 10 of ASU
After many months and multiple blog posts, we have now reached the tenth and last chapter of Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Nozick begins this chapter by asking whether his ideal of the minimal state would inspire men to struggle or … Continue reading
Optimal Auctions and Hamilton
We interrupt our ongoing review of Anarchy, State, and Utopia to ask a simple question: why isn’t there a movie version of the popular Broadway musical “Hamilton” yet? According to this report in The Wall Street Journal (hat tip: kottke), … Continue reading

