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19 Ariz. L. Rev. 45 (1977)
Some Ruminations on Rights

handle is hein.journals/arz19 and id is 53 raw text is: SOME RUMINATIONS ON RIGHTS Judith Jarvis Thomson* In Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick says that a govern- ment which imposes taxes for the purpose of redistribution violates the rights of its citizens.' The word imposes perhaps needs no stress: Nozick could hardly object to a government's withholding a percentage of income for this purpose if its citizens had unanimously requested it to do so. What he objects to-on the ground of its constituting a violation of rights-is forcing payment for this purpose on those who do not wish to pay. What we might expect Nozick to give us, then, is a theory of rights, or at least a clear picture of why this should be so. In fact, we get neither. Nozick makes two quite general points about rights, both of them important. He says, first, that the fact that if we bring about that such and such is the case there will be more good in the world than there otherwise would be does not by itself justify our bringing about that it is the case, and this on the ground that to bring it about may be to violate a right. This seems to me to be wholly right. Suppose, for example, that if we bring about that Alfred takes a certain aspirin tablet there will be more good in the world than there otherwise would be. This does not by itself justify our bringing about that Alfred takes it, for it might be that to do so would be to violate a right. For example, it might be that Bert owns that aspirin tablet and does not wish Alfred to take it; in that case, to bring about that Alfred takes it would be to violate a right of Bert's. Indeed, it might be that Alfred himself owns it but does not wish to take it; in that case, to bring about that he does would be to violate, paternalistically, a right of Alfred's. This point, though important, is familiar enough. What is perhaps * Professor of Philosophy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. B.A. Barnard College 1950; M.A. Cambridge University 1956; Ph.D. Columbia University 1959. 1. R. NOZICK, ANARCHY, STATE, AND UTOPIA 171-74 (1974).

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