"ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY": FIRST EDITION OF NOZICK'S ANARCHY, STATE, AND UTOPIA

NOZICK, Robert. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York: Basic, (1974). Octavo, original brown cloth, original dust jacket. $1200.

First edition of Nozick's powerful and widely influential philosophical argument for broad individual rights, his "complex, sophisticated, ingenious" libertarian reply to John Rawls' Theory of Justice (1971), and winner of the 1975 U.S. National Book Award in Philosophy and Religion.

"Nozick's book is a major event in contemporary political philosophy" (New York Review of Books). It "won the National Book Award in 1975 and in 2008 was listed by the Times Literary Supplement as one of the 100 most influential books since WWII. It is certainly, and by far, one of the most influential philosophical books of the 20th century" (Hunt, Anarchy, State, and Utopia, 1). Nozick argues that the only legitimate rule of the state is to protect people from aggression through the military, police and courts. Otherwise, people should essentially be free to live as they wish. Those individual rights—that freedom—is paramount and the state must always be kept minimal to ensure that individual rights are not threatened. Early hailed as "complex, sophisticated, ingenious" (Economist), Anarchy, State, and Utopia remains "a classic of modern political philosophy. Along with John Rawls' Theory of Justice (1971), it is widely credited with breathing new life into the discipline in the second half of the 20th century" (Cambridge Companion). Neat underlining to three passages on pages 241-43.

Book near-fine, with foxing to edges of text block and mild toning to extremities. Dust jacket extremely good, with slight soiling and light wear and toning to extremities.