Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick

At the same time, almost all the essays engage in at least some level of novel and thought-provoking argument, so that even academics who have tread in these waters many times before will come away with fresh ideas and a fresh appreciation of the subject. And most of them are quite helpful in setting context and defining terms, making the collection as a whole appropriate even for undergraduates with little prior exposure to philosophy.

The essays are a good mix of critique and appreciation. Their Cambridge Companion consists of eleven original essays written by a nearly ideal group of contributors - Richard Arneson, Michael Otsuka, Fred Feldman, Eric Mack, Gerald Gaus, Peter Vallentyne, David Schmidtz, Barbara Fried, Chandran Kukathas, and Bader and Meadowcroft themselves - along with an introductory essay jointly written by the editors. There is thus an important place for a book like the one that Ralf Bader and John Meadowcroft have put together. Whole books, if not whole academic careers, could be devoted to working out in detail the ideas that Nozick relegates to mere footnotes and asides. and dropped almost as soon as it is introduced. One cannot read too far in it without coming across an idea that is brilliant, fecund, intriguing. It is also a book that virtually cries out for a companion. When one compares its reputation with its actual effects, one might just conclude that Anarchy, State, and Utopia is the most uninfluential influential book ever written. The one notable exception to this generalization merely heaps irony upon neglect: left-libertarians like Hillel Steiner and Peter Vallentyne follow closely in the neo-Lockean tradition revitalized by Nozick and frequently refer to his work, but all in the service of a politics that is largely opposed to the kind of free market society championed by Nozick. It hasn't even really produced very many people who consider themselves to be working in a broadly Nozickian tradition. It has, for instance, produced almost no Nozickians.

And yet, for all that, Nozick's masterpiece has played a rather curiously limited role in academic political philosophy since its publication almost 40 years ago. It is certainly the most influential book of libertarian political philosophy, at least within the academy. Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia is widely regarded as one of the most influential books of political philosophy of the 20th century.

Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick