Analytic PhilosophyAnalytic Political Philosophy |
What was Robert Nozick’s response to John Rawls? |
First, Nozick (1938–2002) held that rights were inviolable. Second, he argued that a minimal state could develop without violating rights, but that a Rawlsian state could not because of the difference principle. Nozick argued that any state based on the principle of helping the disadvantaged required the violation of property rights where property had been acquired through free exchange.