The Need for Basic Rights

A Critique of Nozick’s Entitlement Theory

Authors

Keywords:

Nozick’s Entitlement Theory, Libertarianism, entitlement theory

Abstract

Although the Libertarian Party has gained traction as the third biggest political party in the United States, the philosophical grounding of the party, which is exemplified by Robert Nozick’s entitlement theory, is inherently flawed. Libertarianism’s emphasis on a free market leads to gross inequalities since it has no regard for sacred rights other than one’s right to freedom from interference from the government beyond what is essential for societal functioning. I argue that Nozick’s entitlement theory leads to indirect injustice and is therefore an unfitting philosophical theory, which means that the Libertarian Party’s platform is flawed.

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References

Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, State, Utopia. New York: Basic Books.
Shue, H. (1980). Basic Rights: Subsistence, Affluence, and U.S. Foreign Policy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
The Need for Basic Rights: A Critique of Nozick’s Entitlement Theory

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Published

10-10-2014

How to Cite

Rentmeester, C. (2014). The Need for Basic Rights: A Critique of Nozick’s Entitlement Theory. SOCRATES, 2(3), 18–26. Retrieved from https://www.socratesjournal.com/index.php/SOCRATES/article/view/9

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 3 (2014): Issue - September

Section

Philosophy

License

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Date of revision: Creative common license: 05-02-2017
 

Copyright/CC license that applies to all the articles published before 05-02-2017

Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Author(s) will retain all the right except commercial and re-publishing rights. In the case of re-publishing, they will have to obtain written permission from the journal. Additional licensing agreements (Creative Commons licenses) grants rights to readers to copy, distribute, display and perform the work as long as you give the original author(s) credit, they can not use the works for commercial purposes and are not allowed to alter, transform, or build upon the work. For any reuse or distribution, readers and users must make clear to others the license terms of this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holders. Nothing in this license impairs or restricts the authors’ rights. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

Research Papers published in SOCRATES are licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)