Comprising essays and philosophical fictions, classics and new work, the book ranges from Socrates to W. V. Quine, from the implications of an Israeli kibbutz to the flawed arguments of Ayn Rand. Nozick considers the figure of Socrates himself as well as the Socratic method (why is it a method of getting at the truth?). Many of these essays bring classic methods to bear on new questions about choice. How should you choose in a disconcerning situation ("Newcomb's Problem") when your decisions are completely predictable? Why do threats and not offers typically coerce our choices? How do we make moral judgments when we realize that our moral principles have exceptions? Other essays present new approaches to familiar intellectual puzzles, from the stress on simplicity in scientific hypotheses to the tendency of intellectuals to oppose capitalism.

罗伯特·诺齐克（Robert Nozick，1938-2002） 二十世纪最广为人知、影响最大的哲学家之一，美国哈佛大学教授。因1974年出版第一本著作《无政府，国家和乌托邦》（Anarchy, state, and utopia）一举成名。该书获得美国国家图书奖，并被评为二战后最有影响力的一百本书之一。

另著有《哲学解释》（Philosophical Explanations，1981）、《被省察的人生：哲学沉思》（The Examined Life: Philosophical Meditations，1989）、《个人选择的规范理论》（The Normative Theory of Individual Choice，1990）、《理性的本质》（The Nature of Rationality，1993）、《苏格拉底的困惑》（Socratic Puzzles，1997）、《恒常：客观世界的基本结构》（Invariances: the Structure of Objective World，2001）等，涉及哲学、政治学、伦理学等多个领域。