ABSTRACT
Is an open society not only “good” or “right” but also desirable? That is, why should people want to live in an open society, given that many people are frankly little motivated by normative argument alone? By way of answering this question, I suggest that we turn to the utopian writing of Robert Nozick from the last chapter of Anarchy, State, and Utopia. 1 While Nozick is not usually thought of as a member of the broader open society tradition, I will argue that we can interpret his version of utopia as “meta-utopia” as an open society without much difficulty. Furthermore, if we take this step, Nozick offers us the resources to articulate why an open society might be desirable, at least to reasonable and informed individuals. The essay proceeds in five parts. First, I briefly discuss the concept of an open society, in order to establish what precisely I mean when I say that Nozick’s utopia is a version of such a society. Second, I will offer an exegesis of the substance of Nozick’s notion of utopia as a meta-utopia, with the goal of demonstrating that it is a form of open society, and ought to be incorporated into the open society tradition. Third, I discuss how Nozick responds to various challenges faced by his utopia. Fourth, I show how Nozick’s utopia presents the open society as a desirable form of political organization. Fifth and finally, I provide some suggestive comments on the concrete application of Nozick’s utopia.
