Hello, I’m new to these forums and to libertarianism in general, but I was wondering if I could get a little help with an assignment for philosophy & society class. The question goes like this: Why does Nozick believe that patterned theories of justice are incompatible with liberty? How do you think Rawls would respond to Nozick’s arguement? The prof for that class is very openly for Rawls and against Nozick, and I was hoping to come up with a sound arguement for why libertarianism is more compatible with liberty than whatever the hell Rawls is - welfarism, statism, whatever. Some guidance would be greatly appreciated!
The best way to defend Nozick’s ideas is to read Anarchy, State and Utopia. Consider what is involved in maintaining so-called “patterns”: restrictions on exchange, restrictions on differences in ability, forcing the productive to subsidize the nonproductive etc. Not very much in the way of liberty, now is it?
Jan Narveson offers better arguments than Nozick though: http://www.againstpolitics.com/libertarianism/index.html