On The Nozick's Entitlement Theory Of Justice

Robert Nozick, the famous politics philosopher of Harvard University , was one of the best influential thinkers in the 20th century, who died on January 23, 2002 at the age of 63. He was a learned philosopher, a talented debater and a glamorous professor. Nozick developed his politics philosophy, taking individual entitlement as the core of his whole theory. His study not only challenged the Ralws' theory that justice is the key merit, but also influenced the theory and practice of politics philosophy in the late 20th century. His magnum opus, Anarchy ,state and utopia ,is praised as one of the most important contemporary politics philosophy works by west thinkers.This paper attempts to put Nozick's entitlement theory first for studying his politics philosophy as well as finding out valuable enlightenment. The first part talks about the development of liberalism from the sources of Nozick's entitlement theory, which builds the theory foundation and traditional academic background for his system. The second part focuses on discussing Nozick's state theory that the core is individual rights. Right is the prime value of Nozick's politics philosophy in accordance with invisible-hand explanations to trace the origin of state naturally. The ideal state of Nozick is the classical liberalism's night-watchman state which the functions only include protecting people against violence, thievery ,cheat and perform contract compulsorily. The third part discusses the confliction between right and equality. Ralws emphasized equality to resolve inequality problems radically. Nozick emphasized right to hold its inviolability and disproved Ralws' distributive justice theory by unpattorned and historical principles. As a result, the paper ends with the influence and revelation of Nozick's entitlement theory.