E pluribus plurum, or, how to fail to back into a state in spite of really trying

• Main Author: KUKATHAS, Chandran
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2011
• Subjects: Ethics and Political Philosophy; International Relations
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2988; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4245/viewcontent/e_pluribus_plurum_or_how_to_fail_to_get_to_utopia_in_spite_of_really_trying__1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

“The framework for utopia,” Robert Nozick tells us at the beginning of the fi nal section of Part iiiof Anarchy, State, and Utopia( ASU), “is equivalent to the minimal state” (p. 333). The rich andcomplex body of argumentation of Parts iand iihad produced theconclusion that the minimal, and no more than a minimal, statewas legitimate or morally justifi ed. What Part iiireveals is that theminimal state “is the one that best realizes the utopian aspirationsof untold dreamers and visionaries” (p. 333). Although this happyconvergence is surely no accident, neither, Nozick insists, is it contrived, for it is the conclusion reached by two independent lines ofargument. If there is a framework for utopia – or, as I shall from nowsimply say, utopia – it is the minimal state.