Nils Holtug

According to a common narrative, identity politics derives from leftist postmodernism, and is antithetical to both liberalism and Enlightenment universalism. This narrative, however, is false. Identity politics is propagated not only by the left but also by the right-and it is not tied to postmodernism. Various forms of identity politics are, in fact, quite compatible with liberalism and Enlightenment values. Based on a liberal egalitarian framework, Nils Holtug argues that some forms of identity politics are well worth pursuing, while others should clearly be resisted. Among other things, identity politics can serve to increase the opportunities of worse off, marginalized groups. In this book, Holtug considers and assesses specific identity policies, including affirmative action for African Americans, opposition to the n-word and blackfacing, and the backlash against cultural appropriation and out-group representation in art. Identity Politics surveys various forms of 'cancel culture', such as no platforming and the pulling down of statues depicting morally compromised historical figures. Holtug also scrutinizes instances that are more specific to the political right, including white supremacism and ethnopluralism. Finally, he considers the suggestion that identity politics is divisive and drives down social solidarity, arguing that while some forms of identity politics do indeed drive down solidarity, this is less clear in the case of the minority-accommodating policies.

Det danske samfund – ofte betegnet som et velfærdssamfund – er en sammensat størrelse med mange og ofte modsatrettede problemstillinger og udviklingstræk. Denne bog giver læseren et empirisk funderet overblik over, hvordan det danske samfund er indrettet og organiseret, og hvilke logikker der gør sig gældende på centrale samfunds- og velfærdsmæssige områder. De første kapitler giver et overblik over den historiske tilblivelse af den danske velfærdsstat og en overordnet diskussion af, hvad stat, marked og civilsamfund betyder i en dansk kontekst. Herefter sættes der fokus på centrale institutioner, sektorer, temaer og problematikker i det danske samfund. Bogen foreligger her i en grundigt revideret og opdateret 2. udgave og er yderligere tilføjet fire helt nye kapitler, som imødekommer centrale forandringer inden for ligestilling, klima, arbejdsmarked og kunstig intelligens. Bogen er skrevet af førende forskere inden for samfundsvidenskab og retter sig især mod undervisning på uddannelser, hvor der er behov for overblik og viden om det danske samfund i historisk og nutidigt perspektiv, bl.a. samfundsvidenskabelige uddannelser og andre uddannelser på BA- og masterniveau.

Immigration is a divisive policy issue in modern liberal democracies. A common worry is that immigration poses a threat to social cohesion, and so to the social unity that underpins cooperation, stable democratic institutions, and a robust welfare state. At the heart of this worry is the suggestion that social cohesion requires a shared identity at the societal level. In The Politics of Social Cohesion, Nils Holtug gives a careful assessment of the impact of immigration on social cohesion and egalitarian redistribution. First, he critically scrutinizes an influential argument, according to which immigration leads to ethnic diversity, which again tends to undermine trust and solidarity and so the social basis for redistribution. According to this argument, immigration should be severely restricted. And second, he considers the suggestion that, in response to worries about immigration, states should promote a shared identity to foster social cohesion in the citizenry. Holtug argues that the effects of immigration on social cohesion do not need to compromise social justice, and that core principles of liberty and equality not only form the normative basis for just policies of immigration and integration but, as a matter of empirical fact, are also the values that, if shared, are most likely to produce the social cohesion among community members that provides the social basis for implementing justice.

In our lives, we aim to achieve welfare for ourselves, that is, to live good lives. But we also have another, more impartial perspective, where we aim to balance our concern for our own welfare against a concern for the welfare of others. This is a perspective of justice. Nils Holtug examines these two perspectives and the relations between them. The first part of the book is concerned with prudence; more precisely, with what the necessary and sufficient conditions are for having a self-interest in a particular benefit. It includes discussions of the extent to which self-interest depends on preferences, personal identity, and what matters in survival. It also considers the issue of whether it can benefit (or harm) a person to come into existence and what the implications are for our theory of self-interest. A 'prudential view' is defended, according to which a person has a present self-interest in a future benefit if and only if she stands in a relation of continuous physical realization of (appropriate) psychology to the beneficiary, where the strength of the self-interest depends both on the size of the benefit and on the strength of this relation. The second part of the book concerns distributive justice and so how to distribute welfare or self-interest fulfilment over individuals. It includes discussions of welfarism, egalitarianism and prioritarianism, population ethics, the importance of personal identity and what matters for distributive justice, and the importance of all these issues for various topics in applied ethics, including the badness of death. Here, a version of prioritarianism is defended, according to which, roughly, the moral value of a benefit to an individual at a time depends on both the size of the benefit and on the individual's self-interest, at that time, in the other benefits that accrue to her at this and other times.

In our lives, we aim to achieve welfare for ourselves, that is, to live good lives. But we also have another, more impartial perspective, where we aim to balance our concern for our own welfare against a concern for the welfare of others. This is a perspective of justice. Nils Holtug examines these two perspectives and the relations between them. The first part of the book is concerned with prudence; more precisely, with what the necessary and sufficient conditions are for having a self-interest in a particular benefit. It includes discussions of the extent to which self-interest depends on preferences, personal identity, and what matters in survival. It also considers the issue of whether it can benefit (or harm) a person to come into existence and what the implications are for our theory of self-interest. A 'prudential view' is defended, according to which a person has a present self-interest in a future benefit if and only if she stands in a relation of continuous physical realization of (appropriate) psychology to the beneficiary, where the strength of the self-interest depends both on the size of the benefit and on the strength of this relation. The second part of the book concerns distributive justice and so how to distribute welfare or self-interest fulfilment over individuals. It includes discussions of welfarism, egalitarianism and prioritarianism, population ethics, the importance of personal identity and what matters for distributive justice, and the importance of all these issues for various topics in applied ethics, including the badness of death. Here, a version of prioritarianism is defended, according to which, roughly, the moral value of a benefit to an individual at a time depends on both the size of the benefit and on the individual's self-interest, at that time, in the other benefits that accrue to her at this and other times.

Lighedsidealet er under angreb. I ingen af de tidligere socialistiske lande lykkedes det at skabe et klasseløst samfund. Mange mener derfor, at ethvert forsøg på at skabe et lighedsbaseret samfund er dømt til at mislykkes. Har lighedsidealet spillet fallit? Med udgangspunkt i teorier, fremsat af førende politiske filosoffer som Rawls, Dworkin, Nozick og Taylor, undersøger forfatterne hvilke former for lighed, det overhovedet er værd at stræbe efter, og hvordan lighedsidealet kan begrundes. Nils Holtug, Klemens Kappel og Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen er alle tilknyttet Institut for filosofi på Københavns Universitet.