Politics and Tolerance on John Locke and Robert Nozick

Abstract

In 1974, Robert Nozick published *Anarchy, State and Utopia*, a workthat granted theoretical status to one of the streams of the neoliberal thought:libertarianism. Nozick’s text claims to be a reinterpretation of John Locke’s politicaltheory in terms of analytical philosophy. This article argues that, althoughthe Nozick’s perspective presents certain rhetorical similarities with the work ofthe English philosopher, in each one of the fundamental points (such as the ideaof right, the notion of personhood, the role of politics, and the concepts of justiceand the public good) Nozick separates himself clearly from the Lockean premises.This study concludes that, by distancing his work from the Lockean *weltanschauung,*Nozick defends a society in which politics has no place and which theState appears, paradoxically, less limited than in the classic liberal theories.