Nils Holtug
Biographic Data
| ID | 294991 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nils Holtug |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nils |
| FAMILY NAME | Holtug |
| SIGNATURE | HOLTUG N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Copenhagen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7473-2453 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 82 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Prioritarianism, competing claims, and impersonal value
In this article, some recent objections to prioritarianism are critically discussed, pertaining to, respectively, competing claims and impersonal value. The competing claims objections are due to Michael Otsuka and apply to non-risky, or certain, outcomes. Otsuka argues that prioritarianism fails to fully cater to competing claims when it comes to large losses, rank-switching and saving large numbers of people. The impersonal value objections are…
Identity Politics: Left and Right
According to a common narrative, identity politics derives from leftist postmodernism and is antithetical to liberalism and Enlightenment universalism. However, in this book, Holtug argues that this narrative is false. Identity politics is propagated not only by the left but also by the right, is not tied to postmodernism, and various forms of it are quite compatible with liberalism and Enlightenment values. Indeed, based on a liberal egalitarian…
Trust, solidarity, and the causal significance of (shared) values
Prioritarianism and Population Ethics
Roughly stated, prioritarianism is the view that we should give priority to the worse off in the distribution of welfare. Like other distributive principles, it struggles with coming up with plausible judgments in the sphere of population ethics. Thus, prioritarians may either hold that prioritarianism applies to different-number comparisons of outcomes or that it does not. If the former, this has various counterintuitive implications, not least …
Principles and Persons: The Legacy of Derek Parfit
The Politics of Social Cohesion: Immigration, Community, and Justice
In contemporary liberal democracies, it is difficult to find a policy issue as divisive as immigration. 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. The Politics of Social Cohesion considers in …
Climate Refugees, Demandingness and Kagan’s Conditional
Global Equality and Open Borders
Egalitarians disagree about the extent to which states should have open borders. Sometimes, this disagreement is due to a deeper disagreement about the scope of egalitarian justice. Egalitarians holding that equality has domestic scope only may be inclined to favor restrictive immigration policies to protect the welfare state. Egalitarians holding that equality has global scope, on the other hand, may be inclined to support more open borders in o…
Prioritarianism: A response to critics
Prioritarianism is a moral view that ranks outcomes according to the sum of a strictly increasing and strictly concave transformation of individual well-being. Prioritarianism is ‘welfarist’ (namely, it satisfies axioms of Pareto Indifference, Strong Pareto, and Anonymity) as well as satisfying three further axioms: Pigou–Dalton (formalizing the property of giving greater weight to those who are worse off), Separability, and Continuity. Philosoph…
Prioritarianism: A Response to Critics
Prioritarianism: Ex Ante, Ex Post, or Factualist Criterion of Rightness
Journal of Political PhilosophyVolume 27, Issue 2 p. 207-228 Original Article Prioritarianism: Ex Ante, Ex Post, or Factualist Criterion of Rightness?† Nils Holtug, Nils Holtug Philosophy, University of CopenhagenSearch for more papers by this author Nils Holtug, Nils Holtug Philosophy, University of CopenhagenSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 November 2018 https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12174Citations: 3 †This article has b…
Do shared values promote social cohesion? If so, which? Evidence from Denmark
Social scientists and political theorists often claim that shared values are conducive to social cohesion, and trust and solidarity in particular. Furthermore, this idea is at the heart of what has been labeled the ‘national identity argument’, according to which religious and/or cultural diversity is a threat to the shared (national) values underpinning social cohesion and redistributive justice. However, there is no consensus among political th…
Prioritarianism
Prioritarianism is a principle of distributive justice. Roughly, it states that we should give priority to the worse off in the distribution of advantages. This principle has received a great deal of attention in political theory since Derek Parfit first introduced the distinction between egalitarianism and prioritarianism in his Lindley Lecture, published in 1991. In the present article, prioritarianism is defined in terms of a number of structu…
Luck Egalitarianism and the Rights of Immigrants
This article considers the implications of luck egalitarianism for a range of issues relating to international, South‐North migration. More specifically, the implications of luck egalitarianism for the question of whether receiving societies are justified in extending to immigrants a less comprehensive set of rights than that enjoyed by other members of society are considered. First, are voluntary migrants responsible for their migration in such …
Identity, causality and social cohesion
Nils Holtugab*a Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmarkb Philosophy Section, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
A fair distribution of refugees in the European Union
In light of the large recent inflow of refugees to the EU and the Commission’s efforts to relocate them, I raise the question of what a fair distribution of refugees between EU countries would look like. More specifically, I consider what concerns such a distributive scheme should be sensitive to. First, I put forward some arguments for why states are obligated to admit refugees and outline how I believe the EU should respond to the refugee crisi…
Community Conceptions and Social Cohesion: Theoretical, Empirical, and Normative Issues
Welfare Luck Egalitarianism and Expensive Tastes
In his classic paper “Equality of What? Part 1: Equality of Welfare”, Ronald Dworkin argued that we should reject the notion that welfare is the currency of egalitarian justice. One reason is that this notion implies we should compensate individuals for expensive tastes they have deliberately cultivated. However, several egalitarians have objected that Dworkin conflates the resource/welfare and the luck/choice distinction. In particular, welfare …
Insurance, Equality and the Welfare State: Political Philosophy and (of) Public Insurance
The cosmopolitan strikes back: A critical discussion of Miller on nationality and global equality
According to David Miller, we have stronger obligations towards our co-nationals than we have towards non-nationals. While a principle of equality governs our obligations of justice within the nation-state, our obligations towards non-nationals are governed by a weaker principle of sufficiency. In this paper, I critically assess Miller's objection to a traditional argument for global egalitarianism, according to which nationalist and other deviat…
The Ethics of Immigration Policy
This article concerns the normative basis for immigration policy. In particular, I consider the implications of three fundamental liberal values, namely democracy, liberty and equality. First, I argue that democratic theory seriously questions the right to national self-determination when it comes to immigration. This is because potential immigrants may be coercively affected by immigration policy and, on a standard account of democratic legitima…
Persons, Interests, and Justice
This is a book on welfare and its importance for distributive justice. Part I 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 ex…
Essentialism vs. Constructivism: Introduction
(2010). Essentialism vs. Constructivism: Introduction. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 39-45
Introduction: Immigration, diversity and social cohesion
Concerns about the social cohesion of societies are by no means a new phenom enon in politics. And, at least since Durkheim, social scientists have emphasized the need for commonalities between people to underpin collective action and solidar ity. Nevertheless, while not a new concern, it is striking how prominent social cohesion discourses have become in contemporary politics in the West. To a large extent this focus can be seen as a response to…
Immigration and the politics of social cohesion
According to the social cohesion argument for restrictive immigration policies, immigration causes ethnic diversity and ethnic diversity undermines social cohesion and thereby the sort of solidarity necessary to uphold the welfare state. Therefore, immigration must be (severely) restricted. I argue that this argument in fact encompasses a variety of different arguments that have importantly different implications for immigration policy, and relie…
Do shared values promote social cohesion? If so, which? Evidence from Denmark
Social scientists and political theorists often claim that shared values are conducive to social cohesion, and trust and solidarity in particular. Furthermore, this idea is at the heart of what has been labeled the ‘national identity argument’, according to which religious and/or cultural diversity is a threat to the shared (national) values underpinning social cohesion and redistributive justice. However, there is no consensus among political th…
Immigration and the politics of social cohesion
According to the social cohesion argument for restrictive immigration policies, immigration causes ethnic diversity and ethnic diversity undermines social cohesion and thereby the sort of solidarity necessary to uphold the welfare state. Therefore, immigration must be (severely) restricted. I argue that this argument in fact encompasses a variety of different arguments that have importantly different implications for immigration policy, and relie…
Introduction: Immigration, diversity and social cohesion
Concerns about the social cohesion of societies are by no means a new phenom enon in politics. And, at least since Durkheim, social scientists have emphasized the need for commonalities between people to underpin collective action and solidar ity. Nevertheless, while not a new concern, it is striking how prominent social cohesion discourses have become in contemporary politics in the West. To a large extent this focus can be seen as a response to…
Identity, causality and social cohesion
Nils Holtugab*a Centre for Advanced Migration Studies, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmarkb Philosophy Section, Department of Media, Cognition and Communication, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Prioritarianism: A response to critics
Prioritarianism is a moral view that ranks outcomes according to the sum of a strictly increasing and strictly concave transformation of individual well-being. Prioritarianism is ‘welfarist’ (namely, it satisfies axioms of Pareto Indifference, Strong Pareto, and Anonymity) as well as satisfying three further axioms: Pigou–Dalton (formalizing the property of giving greater weight to those who are worse off), Separability, and Continuity. Philosoph…
Essentialism vs. Constructivism: Introduction
(2010). Essentialism vs. Constructivism: Introduction. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 39-45
A fair distribution of refugees in the European Union
In light of the large recent inflow of refugees to the EU and the Commission’s efforts to relocate them, I raise the question of what a fair distribution of refugees between EU countries would look like. More specifically, I consider what concerns such a distributive scheme should be sensitive to. First, I put forward some arguments for why states are obligated to admit refugees and outline how I believe the EU should respond to the refugee crisi…
The cosmopolitan strikes back: A critical discussion of Miller on nationality and global equality
According to David Miller, we have stronger obligations towards our co-nationals than we have towards non-nationals. While a principle of equality governs our obligations of justice within the nation-state, our obligations towards non-nationals are governed by a weaker principle of sufficiency. In this paper, I critically assess Miller's objection to a traditional argument for global egalitarianism, according to which nationalist and other deviat…
Welfarism – The Very Idea
According to outcome welfarism, roughly, the value of an outcome is fundamentally a matterof the individual welfare it contains. I assess various suggestions as to how to spell out this idea more fully on the basis of some basic intuitions about the content and implications of welfarism. I point out that what are in fact different suggestions are often conflated and argue that none fully captures the basic intuitions. I then suggest that what thi…
The Harm Principle and Genetically Modified Food
Utility, Priority and Possible People
This paper discusses what the so-called Priority View implies regarding possible people. It is argued that this view is plausible when applied to fixed populations, but that, when applied to the issue of possible people, it faces certain difficulties. If it is claimed that possible people fall within the scope of the Priority View, we are led to the repugnant conclusion (and other counter-intuitive conclusions) at a faster pace than we are by, e.…
Climate Refugees, Demandingness and Kagan’s Conditional
Prioritarianism: Ex Ante, Ex Post, or Factualist Criterion of Rightness
Journal of Political PhilosophyVolume 27, Issue 2 p. 207-228 Original Article Prioritarianism: Ex Ante, Ex Post, or Factualist Criterion of Rightness?† Nils Holtug, Nils Holtug Philosophy, University of CopenhagenSearch for more papers by this author Nils Holtug, Nils Holtug Philosophy, University of CopenhagenSearch for more papers by this author First published: 19 November 2018 https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12174Citations: 3 †This article has b…
Ethical limits to domestication
Ethical limits to domestication
Egalitarianism and the levelling down objection
Journal Article Egalitarianism and the levelling down objection Get access Nils Holtug Nils Holtug University of CopenhagenNjalsgade 80, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Analysis, Volume 58, Issue 2, April 1998, Pages 166–174, https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/58.2.166 Published: 01 April 1998
Identity, Integrity, and Nuclei Transplantation
Bioetik
The HGDP in the Best Possible World
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Utility, Priority and Possible People
This paper discusses what the so-called Priority View implies regarding possible people. It is argued that this view is plausible when applied to fixed populations, but that, when applied to the issue of possible people, it faces certain difficulties. If it is claimed that possible people fall within the scope of the Priority View, we are led to the repugnant conclusion (and other counter-intuitive conclusions) at a faster pace than we are by, e.…
The Harm Principle and Genetically Modified Food
The Harm Principle
Good for whom
According to the Levelling Down Objection, (teleological) egalitarianism implausibly implies that it can be in one respect good to bring about equality, even if no‐one benefits from it. Larry Temkin has argued that this objection presupposes a principle he calls the ‘Slogan’. And he has raised two objections to this principle. According to the first, the Slogan gets us into trouble when applied to the so‐called Non‐Identity Problem. According to …
Welfarism – The Very Idea
According to outcome welfarism, roughly, the value of an outcome is fundamentally a matterof the individual welfare it contains. I assess various suggestions as to how to spell out this idea more fully on the basis of some basic intuitions about the content and implications of welfarism. I point out that what are in fact different suggestions are often conflated and argue that none fully captures the basic intuitions. I then suggest that what thi…
An Introduction to Contemporary Egalitarianism
1. What Is Equality? During the 1980s, the number of homeless people in the United States grew rapidly. This was due, among other things, to the Reagan administration’s severe cuts to the housing budget. In fact, by the end of the Reagan years the federal government was spending $8 billion annually on housing. The Carter administration had spent $32 billion annually at a time when homelessness was far less common (Singer 1993: 28). Most egalitari…
Egalitarianism New Essays on the Nature and Value of Equality
Egalitarianism, the view that equality matters, attracts a great deal of attention amongst contemporary political theorists. And yet it has turned out to be surprisingly difficult to provide a fully satisfactory egalitarian theory. The cutting-edge articles in Egalitarianism move the debate forward. They are written by some of the leading political philosophers in the field. Recent issues in the debate over equality are given careful consideratio…
Prioritarianism
Prioritarianism is the view that, roughly, a benefit has greater moral value the worse the situation of the individual to whom it accrues. This view has received a great deal of attention in recent years.1 In part, this is due to the fact that prioritarianism has only recently been distinguished from egalitarianism, at least by political philosophers. Thus, it has been suggested that perhaps some political theorists who have thought of themselves…
Language in Context: Selected Essays
xi, 339 pages : 24 cm
A Note on Conditional Egalitarianism
Roughly, according to conditional egalitarianism, equality is non-instrumentally valuable, but only if it benefits at least one individual. Some political theorists have argued that conditional egalitarianism has the important virtue that it allows egalitarians to avoid the so-called ‘levelling down’ objection. However, in the present article I argue that conditional egalitarianism does not offer the egalitarian a plausible escape route from this…
Person-Affecting Moralities
Nationalism and Multiculturalism in a World of Immigration
This anthology contributes to the still emerging theoretical debates in political theory and philosophy about multiculturalism, nationalism and immigration. It focuses on multiculturalism and national
Liberal Equality And The Politics Of Religion
According to the traditional conception of liberal egalitarianism, the state should be neutral on religious issues and the rights granted to citizens to practice their religions should be universal, and thus blind with respect to religious differences between people. In this paper, I critically examine both components of the traditional view. I argue: (1) state neutrality is compatible with much more religion in the public sphere than it is usual…
Equality, priority and global justice
Derek Parfit has argued that prioritarianism “naturally” has global scope, i.e. naturally applies to everyone, irrespective of his or her particular national, state or other communal affiliation. In that respect, it differs from e.g. egalitarianism. In this article, I critically assess Parfit's argument. In particular, I argue that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the scope of prioritarianism simply from an inspection of its structure. I…
Persons, Interests, and Justice
This is a book on welfare and its importance for distributive justice. Part I 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 ex…
Essentialism vs. Constructivism: Introduction
(2010). Essentialism vs. Constructivism: Introduction. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 39-45
Introduction: Immigration, diversity and social cohesion
Concerns about the social cohesion of societies are by no means a new phenom enon in politics. And, at least since Durkheim, social scientists have emphasized the need for commonalities between people to underpin collective action and solidar ity. Nevertheless, while not a new concern, it is striking how prominent social cohesion discourses have become in contemporary politics in the West. To a large extent this focus can be seen as a response to…
Immigration and the politics of social cohesion
According to the social cohesion argument for restrictive immigration policies, immigration causes ethnic diversity and ethnic diversity undermines social cohesion and thereby the sort of solidarity necessary to uphold the welfare state. Therefore, immigration must be (severely) restricted. I argue that this argument in fact encompasses a variety of different arguments that have importantly different implications for immigration policy, and relie…
The cosmopolitan strikes back: A critical discussion of Miller on nationality and global equality
According to David Miller, we have stronger obligations towards our co-nationals than we have towards non-nationals. While a principle of equality governs our obligations of justice within the nation-state, our obligations towards non-nationals are governed by a weaker principle of sufficiency. In this paper, I critically assess Miller's objection to a traditional argument for global egalitarianism, according to which nationalist and other deviat…
The Ethics of Immigration Policy
This article concerns the normative basis for immigration policy. In particular, I consider the implications of three fundamental liberal values, namely democracy, liberty and equality. First, I argue that democratic theory seriously questions the right to national self-determination when it comes to immigration. This is because potential immigrants may be coercively affected by immigration policy and, on a standard account of democratic legitima…
Community Conceptions and Social Cohesion: Theoretical, Empirical, and Normative Issues
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