Robert Nozick

(American political philosopher, 1938–2002). Nozick was a mercurial thinker who often consulted fields external to philosophy, bringing their ideas to bear in the presentation of novel approaches to a variety of philosophical problems. He is best remembered for the libertarian political philosophy he articulated in Anarchy, State, and Utopia which attempted to counter the arguments of John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice. Nozick’s later text, The Examined Life, however, backs away slightly from the hardcore libertarian views expressed in the former work.