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The Business of Liberty and the Liberty of Business
Robert Nozick’s Classic, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, at 50
Thursday, October 24, 2024

building

When
Thursday, October 24, 2024
6:00 p.m.: Wine and Hors d’Oeuvres Reception
7:00 p.m.: Program and Q&A

Where
Independent Institute Conference Center
100 Swan Way
Oakland, CA 94621
Free Parking
Map and directions

Tickets
General Admission: $15 or $10 for Members
All tickets include a free copy of the Fall 2024 issue of The Independent Review (list price: $11.95)
Book: Anarchy, State, and Utopia, $10 per copy (50% off)
Reserve Tickets
Featuring
Alan Dershowitz
American lawyer and law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appointed as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. He is the author of dozens of books, including Defending the Constitution and Contrary to Popular Opinion. His writings appear regularly in the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, and Haaretz. He is frequently featured as a commentator on network news broadcasts. Joining remotely via Zoom live from New York.
Official website
Gregory J. Robson
Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute, Associate Research Professor in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame, and Co-Editor of The Independent Review: A Journal of Political Economy. He is editor of the forthcoming book, Technology Ethics: A Philosophical Introduction and Readings (with Jonathan Tsou), and a contributing author to the book, Exploring the Political Economy and Social Philosophy of F. A. Hayek. His articles and reviews have been published in such scholarly journals as Ethics; Journal of Moral Philosophy; Politics, Philosophy & Economics; Journal of Business Ethics; and Public Affairs Quarterly.
Bio on independent.org
Christopher Freiman
Professor in the John Chambers College of Business and Economics, West Virginia University. He is the author of Unequivocal Justice and Why It’s OK to Ignore Politics as well as numerous articles and book chapters. His work has appeared in The Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, and The Oxford Handbook of Political Philosophy.
Bio on WVU.edu

Join us for a reception and discussion of Robert Nozick’s classic book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, first published fifty years ago. Nozick’s book refuted social-justice statism—but also rankled many conservatives and libertarians. This event coincides with the publication of the Fall 2024 special issue of The Independent Review, featuring scholars who revisit Nozick’s rational, complex, and balanced case for individual liberty and limited government. These scholars not only admire Nozick and deepen our understanding of his seminal work but also honor him with important disagreements and reinterpretations.

The Guardian (U.K.), proclaimed Nozick “one of the 20th century’s greatest political theorists.” Nozick’s longtime colleague and friend, Alan Dershowitz, who will join us live remotely from New York, agrees with this assessment—and will also offer his own thoughts and personal reminiscences on Nozick.

The full set of contributors to the Fall 2024 issue of The Independent Review:

  • Gregory Robson, “The Business of Liberty and the Liberty of Business: Nozick's Contribution.”
  • David Schmidtz, “My Dinner with Nozick.”
  • Jason Brennan, “Robert Nozick and the Moral High Ground.”
  • Jessica Flanigan and Chris Freiman, “Putting Wilt Chamberlain Back in the Game: Why Liberalism Is Not Compatible with Distributive Egalitarianism.”
  • Aeon Skoble, “Anarchy, State, and Utopia at Fifty: Reassessing Nozick on Pluralism.”
  • Richard Salsman, “Nozick on Taxation: The Necessity of Funding the Legitimate State.”
  • David Gordon, “New Problems in Nozick’s Derivation of the Minimal State.”
  • Eric Mack, “Nozick on the Separateness of Persons: A Reconstruction.”
  • Gregory Robson, symposium editor and essay author of “Christianizing Nozick.”
Anarchy, State,and Utopia
Anarchy, State,and Utopia
by Robert Nozick

First published in response to John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice, Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia has since become one of the defining texts in classic libertarian thought. Challenging and ultimately rejecting liberal, socialist, and conservative agendas, Nozick boldly asserts that the rights of individuals are violated as a state's responsibilities increase—and the only way to avoid these violations rests in the creation of a minimalist state limited to protection against force, fraud, theft, and the enforcement of contracts.




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