American philosopher, author, and academic (born 1938)

Robert Nozick

Robert Nozick was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, and was president of the American Philosophical Association. He is best known for his book Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), a libertarian answer to John Rawls' A Theory of Justice (1971), in which Nozick proposes his minimal state as the only justifiable form of government. His later work Philosophical Explanations (1981) advanced notable epistemological claims, namely his counterfactual theory of knowledge.

Born

1938

November 16

Died

2002

Era

1930s

Country

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About

Robert, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1938 Born
2002 Died

Also on November 16

What else happened on this day, through history

951 Emperor Li Jing sends a Southern Tang expeditionary force of 10,000 men under Bian Hao to conquer Chu. Li Jing removes the ruling family to his own capital in Nanjing, ending the Chu Kingdom.
1272 While travelling during the Ninth Crusade, Prince Edward becomes King of England upon Henry III of England's death, but he will not return to England for nearly two years to assume the throne.
1491 An auto-da-fé, held in the Brasero de la Dehesa outside of Ávila, concludes the case of the Holy Child of La Guardia with the public execution of several Jewish and converso suspects.
1532 Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Inca Emperor Atahualpa at the Battle of Cajamarca.

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The world in 1938

When Robert arrived

april 18 Superman debuts in Action Comics #1 (cover dated June 1938).
april 25 U.S. Supreme Court delivers its opinion in Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins and overturns a century of federal common law.
april 5 Spanish Civil War: Two days after the Nationalist army occupied the Catalan city of Lleida, dictator Francisco Franco decrees the abolition of the Generalitat (the autonomous government of Catalonia), the self-government granted by the Republic, and the official status of the Catalan language.
august 18 The Thousand Islands Bridge, connecting New York, United States, with Ontario, Canada, over the Saint Lawrence River, is dedicated by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on November 16

Bol Bol 1999– South Sudanese-American basketball player Ellen Albertini Dow 1913–2015 American actress (born 1913) Francis M. Fesmire 1959– American cardiologist and physician (died 2014) Leonardo Loredan 1436–1521 Italian politician, 76th Doge of Venice (born 1436) Magdi Yacoub 1935– Egyptian-English surgeon and academic Paul Hindemith 1895–1963 German violist, composer, and conductor (born 1895) Paul Scholes 1974– English footballer and sportscaster Peter Andreas Heiberg 1758–1841 Danish philologist and author (born 1758) Shobha Nagi Reddy 1968–2014 Indian politician (born 1968)

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1938

Alan Bond 1938–2015 English-Australian businessman (died 2015) Alberto Fujimori 1938–2024 Peruvian engineer, academic, and politician, President of Peru (died 2024) Andrew Clennel Palmer 1938–2019 British engineer (born 1938) Anthony Giddens 1938– English sociologist and academic Anthony James Leggett 1938– English-American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2026) Billy Shaw 1938–2024 American football player (died 2024) Caryl Churchill 1938– English-Canadian playwright Claudia Cardinale 1938– Italian actress (died 2025) Daniel Buren 1938– French sculptor and painter

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More to explore

Robert's birthday November 16 Robert's zodiac Scorpio When Robert arrived 1938