Reading Nozick’s Critic of Rawls’ Theory of Justice

Abstract

This paper evaluates Nozick’s critic of Rawls’ difference principle and his idea of social cooperation. Nozick proposes an entitlement theory as an alternative to Rawls’ theory of justice. He makes a case for three principles of justice and discards Rawls’ idea of social cooperation. I argue that comparatively Rawls’ difference principle is preferable since the question of distributive justice is inescapable. I demonstrate that Nozick’s principle of rectification cannot be applied in the real world. I conclude by showing that Nozick’s idea of the social non-cooperation situation is a myth.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 9(1), 293-308, 2012