The Examined Life is a collection of philosophical meditations written by Robert Nozick and published in 1989. An attempt to "tackle human nature, the personal, 'the holiness of everyday life' and its meaning", it has been described as "disappointingly schmaltzy."[1]
In the book, Nozick disavows his earlier libertarianism,[2] stating that "it did not fully knit the humane considerations and joint cooperative activities it left room for more closely into its fabric. It neglected the symbolic importance of an official political concern with issues or problems, as a way of marking their importance or urgency, and hence of expressing, intensifying, channeling, encouraging, and validating our private actions and concerns toward them."[3]