VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A new book about Robert Nozick, an American philosophy professor, summarizes his contributions to political philosophy, which helped re-invigorate classical liberalism in the United States and beyond.

Published by the Fraser Institute, the book The Essential Robert Nozick (and its accompanying website and animated videos) provide an overview of his key ideas.

“Beginning in the 1970s, Nozick’s insights on what we today call libertarianism—individual rights, limited government and the free market—helped provide an alternative to socialist ideas,” said the book’s author Aeon Skoble, professor of philosophy at Bridgewater State University and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute.

In 1974, Nozick wrote his most famous work (Anarchy, State, and Utopia), which argues for the supremacy of individual rights and a minimal role for government designed exclusively to protect rights.

In addition to its impact on economic and political philosophy, the book marked an evolution in Nozick’s thinking—as a student at Columbia University, he was active in socialist politics—underscoring the fact that philosophy is not dogmatic.

Nozick was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938, and attended Columbia and Princeton before becoming a professor of philosophy at Harvard. He wrote six books and was praised for his clear accessible writing style that crossed ideological lines. He died in 2002 after a long battle with stomach cancer. He was 63 years old.

At www.essentialrobertnozick.org, you can download the complete book and individual chapters for free and view several short videos summarizing the key points of individual chapters. The videos are also available on the Fraser Institute’s YouTube channel.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Aeon Skoble
Professor of Philosophy, Bridgewater State University
askoble@bridgew.edu

Jason Clemens
Executive Vice-President, Fraser Institute
jason.clemens@fraserinstitute.org

To arrange interviews or for more information, please contact:
Mark Hasiuk at (604) 688-0221 ext. 517 or mark.hasiuk@fraserinstitute.org

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The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institute’s independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.org