“No state more extensive than the minimal state can be justified.”

—  Robert Nozick

Source: (1974), Ch. 10 : A Framework for Utopia; The Framework, p. 297

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "No state more extensive than the minimal state can be justified." by Robert Nozick?
Robert Nozick photo
Robert Nozick 32
American political philosopher 1938–2002

Related quotes

“Our main conclusions about the state are that a minimal state, limited, to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified, but any more extensive state will violate persons' rights not to be forced to do certain things, and is unjustified; and that the minimal state is inspiring as well as right.”

Robert Nozick (1938–2002) American political philosopher

Preface, p. ix
(1974)

“Is not the minimal state, the framework for utopia, an inspiring vision?”

Robert Nozick book Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Source: Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), Ch. 10 : A Framework for Utopia; Utopia and the Minimal State, p. 333
Context: Is not the minimal state, the framework for utopia, an inspiring vision?
The minimal state treats us as inviolate individuals, who may not be used in certain ways by others as means or tools or instruments or resources; it treats us as persons having individual right with the dignity this constitutes. Treating us with respect by respecting our rights, it allows us, individually or with whom we please, to choose our life and to realize our ends and our conception of ourselves, insofar as we can, aided by the voluntary cooperation of other individuals possessing the same dignity. How dare any state or group of individuals do more. Or less.

Phillip Abbott Luce photo

“The state sees violence as an enemy which justifies the increase of state power for fighting purposes. Thus the state can always turn any threat of force into a resource.”

Phillip Abbott Luce (1935–1998)

As quoted in “For Utopia, Curb State Controls”, Peggy Baker, Ames Daily Tribune (Ames, Iowa), January 23, 1970

Pierre Trudeau photo

“Of course a bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one — but it is a richer state.”

Pierre Trudeau (1919–2000) 15th Prime Minister of Canada

Remark in 1968, quoted in Improving Canada's Democracy (2006) by Terry Julian, p. 14

“Every dominant state, and particularly an empire, promotes a religion or ideology that justifies its domination over other states in the system.”

Robert Gilpin (1930–2018) Political scientist

p, 125
War and Change in World Politics (1981)

Kim Stanley Robinson photo

“Even if you want no state, or a minimal state, then you have to argue point by point. Especially since the minimalists want to keep the economic and police system that keeps them privileged.”

Kim Stanley Robinson book Green Mars

Coyote ("What Is to Be Done?", p. 370)
Green Mars (1993)
Context: Even if you want no state, or a minimal state, then you have to argue point by point. Especially since the minimalists want to keep the economic and police system that keeps them privileged. That's libertarians for you — anarchists who want police protection from their slaves. No! If you want to make the minimum-state case, you have to argue it from the ground up.

Napoleon Hill photo

“Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author
Maddox photo

“New rule: if your state has more cows than people, you don't get to be a state anymore.”

Maddox (1978) American internet writer

Idaho blows http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=idaho_blows
The Best Page in the Universe

“A state that needs allies can never obtain them; it can become an ally of another, more powerful state, and fight for the Increase of that power, but the state that needs to ally is the subordinate one.”

Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer

The Enemy of Europe (1953)

Related topics