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Full Idea
A state may not use its coercive apparatus for the purposes of getting some citizens to aid others, or in order to prohibit activities to people for their own good or protection.
Gist of Idea
States can't enforce mutual aid on citizens, or interfere for their own good
Source
Robert Nozick (Anarchy,State, and Utopia [1974], Pref)
Book Ref
Nozick,Robert: 'Anarchy,State, and Utopia' [Blackwell 1980], p.-8
A Reaction
You certainly can't apply these principles to children, so becoming an 'adult' seems to be a very profound step in Nozick's account. At what age must we stop interfering with people for their own good. If the state is prohibited, are neighbours also?
| 22597 | Minority rights are everyone's rights, because we all have turns in the minority [Constant] |
| 23037 | People are improved by egalitarian institutions and habits [Green,TH] |
| 6448 | A legitimate system is one accepted as both impartial and reasonably partial [Nagel] |
| 18644 | States can't enforce mutual aid on citizens, or interfere for their own good [Nozick] |
| 23102 | Liberals are egalitarians, but in varying degrees [Kekes] |
| 21113 | Liberal equality concerns rights, and liberal freedom concerns choice of ends [Shorten] |
| 22821 | Liberalism asserts maximum freedom, but that must be equal for all participants [Charvet] |
| 22834 | Egalitarian liberals prefer equality (either of input or outcome) to liberty [Charvet] |
| 23141 | Left-wingers are inconsistent in their essentialist descriptions of social groups [Gopnik] |