CONSERVATISM: Key thinkers - Ayn Rand + Robert Nozick Flashcards
AYN RAND
What were her two most influential pieces of work?
Atlas Shrugged in 1957
Virtue of Selfishness 1964 (non-fictional)
AYN RAND
How come Ayn Rand wasn’t an anarchist?
She wasn’t an anarchist because she recognised the role for the state. She believed it should remain to maintain the free market economy, protect freedom, and maintain secure borders.
AYN RAND
Atlas Shrugged QUO
John Gait - ‘I swear ____ my life, and my ______ for it, that I will _______ live for the sake of ___________ man, nor ___ another man to _______ for mine’
‘I swear by my life, and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to life for mine’
AYN RAND
Key idea: Human nature
QU: ‘If you know ____ this ____ is all ___ have, _______ you _____ ___ _____ of it?’
Rand held a positive view of humans as self-interested, self-reliant, and capable of rational thought.
She saw selfishness as a virtue, as it allowed individuals to pursue the only objective moral purpose in life: their happiness.
Rand was an atheist, and as she believed that we only live one life, it is the rational choice to aim to pursue happiness in it.
‘If you know that this life is all you have, wouldn’t you make the most of it?’.
AYN RAND
Key idea: Society
QU: ‘Freedom: To ___ ________. To _______ nothing. To depend on ________’
She supported atomistic individualism, in a society of individuals seeking self-fulfilment.
Any social obligations or imposed norms merely restrict individual freedom.
Each individual owes little to the rest of society, and should expect little from them, so she opposed all forms of state welfare.
But if we all live a life governed by rational choices, then we recognise the rights of others, and live a virtuous life in which overall freedom is maximised.
She wrote ‘Freedom: To ask nothing. To expect nothing. To depend on nothing ‘.
AYN RAND
Key idea: State
QU: ‘The _____ state is the ______ state’
In this individualistic view, the state should play a minimal role in the life of an individual.
The only roles of the state are to secure a free-market, law and order, and national security, to allow each individual to live as they choose.
She stated that ‘The small state, is the strong state.’
AYN RAND
Key idea: Economy
The optimum economy operates under free-market capitalism with no state intervention, other than the maintenance of law and order.
She noted that ‘America’s abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the common good, but by the productive genius of men who pursued their own personal interests’.
AYN RAND
Why did she not like altruism?
Rand condemned all forms of personal altruism because such acts created an ‘artificial’ sense of obligation and expectation. It did not accord with an individual’s self-interest.
ROBERT NOZICK
What was his major political work?
‘Anarchy, State, and Utopia’ 1974
This set out his libertarian philosophy.
ROBERT NOZICK
What were his two main conclusions in ‘Anarchy, State, and Utopia’ 1974?
- Minimalist government which would produce the best and most just society for individuals. He explored this using the phrase ‘minarchist’ suggesting that the state is so minimal that it is almost, but not quite, anarchist.
- The state must exist ONLY to protect individual human rights – should ensure that any actions taken by the state did not represent any infringement of each individual’s rights.
ROBERT NOZICK
Minimal state
Based on Locke’s argument and pursuit of national rights, Nozick built a case for minimal government and minimal taxation.
Each individual has absolute rights to life, liberty, and property in the sense that no one can interfere with these rights, except in the cases of self-defence of legitimate punishment.
ROBERT NOZICK
Entitlement theory
According to Nozick, anyone who has acquired what he has through legit means is morally entitled to it.
The entitlement theory states that the distribution of holdings in a society is just if everyone in that society is entitled to what he has.
So, the state has no moral right to redistribute anyone’s justly owned property or wealth.
There is no issue if someone voluntarily assists another but is not just that their income or wealth should be taken compulsorily by the state, this is an infringement of the right to property.
ROBERT NOZICK
State welfare
Taxation is for anything other than protection is unjust because it ignores how goods are acquired fairly through trade, labour, gifts etc.
State provision is, consequently, seen as funded by taxation levels that amount to ‘legalised theft’.
The individual should be left to make up their own minds about how they wish to spend their money.
ROBERT NOZICK
What was ‘Anarchy, State, and Utopia’ published sorta in response to?
John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice.
Nozick opposed Rawl’s redistribution ideas.
ROBERT NOZICK
Key ideas: Human nature
Nozick has a slightly more positive view of human nature than many other conservatives.
He argued that humans are rational and driven by ideas of self-ownership of their talents, abilities, and labour.
But he is still a conservative (not an anarchist), in that he suggested that the preservation of life, liberty, and property ‘could not be taken for granted’ without some formal authority to enforce the laws.
