Robert Nozick and Axel Honneth: An attempt to shed light on mental health service in Norway through two diametrical philosophers.

2020

This article aims at giving insight into Norwegian mental health service by exploring the ideologies of two diametrical philosophers, the American Robert Nozick (1938-2002) and the German Axel Honneth (1949-). Nozick proposes as an ideal a minimal state in which citizens have a "negative right" to the absence of interference and to follow their own interests without restriction from the state. On the other side, Axel Honneth claims that there is no freedom without state interference. In his view, governmental involvement is understood as a prerequisite for personal freedom. We may call this state an opposite of the minimal state; a maximal state. To get a better understanding of these oppos…