Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

In this book Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen address the complexities of his question "Is affirmative action morally (un)justifiable?" by analyzing the prevailing contemporary arguments both for and against affirmative action. The book applies current political philosophy to demonstrate that arguments on both sides justify different conclusions given different specific cases, though it ultimately does argue in favor of affirmative action based on the relative strength and significance of the anti-discrimination- and equality of opportunity-based positions.

Making Sense of Affirmative Action

Nils Holtug

muligheder og begrænsninger

Kulturel diversitet

""Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye" (Matthew 7:3-5), says the Bible. The "porridge-pot calls the kettle black-arse," says the non-religious proverb, making its first known literary appearance in Cervantes' (2008, 736) Don Quixote. Both sayings point to the same deep fact about the nature of blame-i.e., that blame is interpersonal in that there is something problematic about one person blaming another when the blamer's faults are similar (the pot is black too) or even greater (one would rather have a mote than have a beam in one's eye). Such blaming is hypocritical and, typically, we see ourselves as entitled to dismiss any hypocritical blame that is directed at us. In fact, we often react quite strongly to being subjected to hypocritical blame. When we dismiss hypocritical blame, we might not deny that we have done something blameworthy (though, of course, we might). Accordingly, nor need we think that we would be entitled to dismiss blame from those who have a better moral record than our blamer. After all, those who dismiss their hypocritical brother's blame in the biblical saying do have a mote in their eye. Some think this renders our typical responses to hypocritical blame puzzling. If we have done something blameworthy, should not others-even people worse than us-be in a position to blame"--

On Blame, Standing, and Normativity

The Beam and the Mote

Theresa Scavenius

What role should (non-normative) facts such as people's confined generosity and scarcity of resources play in the normative theorising of political philosophers? The chapters in this book investigate different aspects of this broad question. Political philosophers are often silent on questions of what types of facts are relevant, if any, for normative theory, and what methodological assumptions about agency and behaviour need to be made, if any such assumptions are necessary. However, due to recent debates among and between idealists, non-idealists and realists in political theory, the issue about the relation between facts and norms in political philosophy/theory is beginning to attract greater attention from political theorists/philosophers. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.

Facts and Norms

Serena Parekh

Melina Duarte

Annamari Vitikainen

How should we respond to the worst refugee crisis since the World War II? What are our duties towards refugees, and how should we distribute these duties among those at the receiving end of the refugee flow? What are the relevant political solutions? Are some states more responsible for creating the current refugee situation, and if so, should they also carry a larger burden on solving this situation? Is people smuggling always morally wrong? Are some groups, for example children, owed more than others, and should we thus take active measures to remove them from conflict zones? How are the existing refugee regimes, in Europe, North-America, or Australia, challenged by the current crisis? Are some of their measures more justified than others? Refugee Crisis: The Borders of Human Mobility discusses the various ethical dilemmas and potential political solutions to the ongoing refugee crisis, providing both theoretical and practical reflections on the current crisis, as well as the ways in which this crisis has been handled in public debate. The contributors to the volume include some of the most prominent political theorists and experts on the current refugee situation, as well as some of the upcoming young scholars working on the theme. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Global Ethics.

Refugee Crisis: The Borders of Human Mobility

Jesper Ryberg

I 1970’erne var de fleste danskere overbevist om, at diskrimination, i det mindste i sine grovere former, primært var noget, som foregik i udlandet. I dag opfattes sagen ganske anderledes. Danskerne og den danske regering bebrejdes ofte de holdninger eller love, som anses for at være diskriminerende. Bl.a. derfor har diskriminationsproblematikken en central placering i den danske politiske debat. Spørgsmålet er imidlertid, om vi har en klar forståelse af, hvad diskrimination egentlig er, og hvorfor det er forkert at diskriminere andre mennesker. I bogen diskuteres diskriminationsproblematik generelt og specifikt på områder som sprogbrug, reklamer, boligområdet, sygehusvæsnet og retssystemet.

Om diskrimination og etik

Født og forbliver lige og frie?

This text addresses these three issues: What is discrimination? What makes it wrong?; What should be done about wrongful discrimination? It argues that there are different concepts of discrimination; that discrimination is not always morally wrong and that when it is, it is so primarily because of its harmful effects.

A Philosophical Inquiry Into the Nature of Discrimination

Born Free and Equal?

David Coady

Kimberley Brownlee

Applied philosophy has been a growing area of research for the last 40 years. Until now, however, almost all of this research has been centered around the field of ethics. A Companion to Applied Philosophy breaks new ground, demonstrating that all areasof philosophy, including epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind, can be applied, and are relevant to questions of everyday life. This perennial topic in philosophy provides an overview of these various applied philosophy developments, highlighting similarities and differences between various areas of applied philosophy, and examining the very nature of this topic. It is an area to which many of the towering figures in the history of philosophy have contributed, and this timely Companion demonstrates how various historical contributions are actually contributions within applied philosophy, even if they are not traditionally seen as such. The Companion contains 42 essays covering major areas of philosophy; the articles themselves are all original contributions to the literature and represent the state of the art on this topic, as well as offering a map to the current debates.

A Companion to Applied Philosophy

While it has many connections to other topics in normative and applied ethics, discrimination is a central subject in philosophy in its own right. It plays a significant role in relation to many real-life complaints about unjust treatment or unjust inequalities, and it raises a number of questions in political and moral philosophy, and in legal theory. Some of these questions include: what distinguishes the concept of discrimination from the concept of differential treatment? What distinguishes direct from indirect discrimination? Is discrimination always morally wrong? What makes discrimination wrong? How should we eliminate the effects of discrimination? By covering a wide range of topics, and by doing so in a way that does not assume prior acquaintance, this handbook enables the reader to get to grips with the omnipresent issue. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Discrimination is an outstanding reference source to this exciting subject and the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the handbook is divided into six main parts: - conceptual issues - the wrongness of discrimination - groups of 'discriminatees' - sites of discrimination - causes and means - history of discrimination. Essential reading for students and researchers in applied ethics and political philosophy the handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as law, sociology and politics.

The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Discrimination

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen tackles all the major questions concerning luck egalitarianism, providing deep, penetrating and original discussion of recent academic discourses on distributive justice as well as responses to some of the main objections in the literature. It offers a new answer to the “Why equality?” and “Equality of what?” questions, and provides a robust luck egalitarian response to the recent criticisms of luck egalitarianism by social relations egalitarians. This systematic, theoretical introduction illustrates the broader picture of distributive justice and enables the reader to understand the core intuitions underlying, or conflicting with, luck egalitarianism.

Luck Egalitarianism

Explores the nature of the ideal of relational equality and how it relates to distributive ideals of justice.

Living as Equals

Relational Egalitarianism

Mads Rosendahl Thomsen

Jacob Wamberg

Kasper LippertRasmussen

If biotechnology can be used to upgrade humans physically and mentally, should it be used at all? And, if so, to what extent? How will biotechnology affect societal cohesion? Can the development be controlled, or is this a Pandoras box that should remain closed? These are but a few of the perplex questions facing scientists as a result of the increasing ability of technology to change biology and, in turn, profoundly change human living conditions. This development has created a new posthuman horizon that will influence contemporary life and politics in a number of ways.The anthology brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines: biotechnology, medicine, ethics, politics, and aesthetics, and among contributors are Francis Fukuyama, Julian Savulescu, Maxwell Mehlman, John Harris and Chris Hables Gray.

Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics of Biotechnological Challenges

The Posthuman Condition

While it has many connections to other topics in normative and applied ethics, discrimination is a central subject in philosophy in its own right. It plays a significant role in relation to many real-life complaints about unjust treatment or unjust inequalities, and it raises a number of questions in political and moral philosophy, and in legal theory. Some of these questions include: what distinguishes the concept of discrimination from the concept of differential treatment? What distinguishes direct from indirect discrimination? Is discrimination always morally wrong? What makes discrimination wrong? How should we eliminate the effects of discrimination? By covering a wide range of topics, and by doing so in a way that does not assume prior acquaintance, this handbook enables the reader to get to grips with the omnipresent issue. The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Discrimination is an outstanding reference source to this exciting subject and the first collection of its kind. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the handbook is divided into six main parts: • conceptual issues • the wrongness of discrimination • groups of ‘discriminatees’ • sites of discrimination • causes and means • history of discrimination. Essential reading for students and researchers in applied ethics and political philosophy the handbook will also be very useful for those in related fields, such as law, sociology and politics.

Three questions that loom large in moral and political philosophy are these: Can deontological moral constraints be justified? When, if ever, are we morally responsible for what we do? How is the ideal of equality best configured? Deontology, Responsibility and Equality deals with selected aspects of these three broad questions. It critically discusses certain attempts by Frances Kamm and Thomas Nagel (among others) to account for the impermissibility of minimizing violations in terms of moral status. Also, it challenges the view that there is a morally relevant difference between doing and allowing harm and, especially, between killing and letting die. In relation to the second question, it concentrates on recent developments within compatibilist accounts of moral responsibility prompted by the work of Harry Frankfurt. It challenges his purported refutation of the principle of alternative possibilities as well as certain positive compatibilist, identification- based accounts of respon

Deontology, Responsibility, and Equality

"What makes affirmative action morally (un)justified? That is this book's core question. Its main contribution consists in a meticulous scrutiny of the strength of the six main arguments for-i.e., the compensation, the anti-discrimination, the equality of opportunity, the role model, the diversity, and the integration-based justifications-and the five main objections to affirmative action-i.e., the reverse discrimination, the stigma, the mismatch, the publicity, and the merit-based objections-and of how these arguments relate to one another. The book argues that all of the five main objections to affirmative action are either flawed or quite limited in terms of their implications. With regard to the arguments in favor of affirmative action, the book shows why the anti-discrimination and equality of opportunity-based arguments provide strong justifications for many affirmative action schemes. In light thereof and the fact that the five most influential arguments against affirmative action are all flawed or otherwise weak, the overall claim defended in the book is that many of the schemes that people have in mind when they discuss affirmative action (many of which are presently on the retreat) are justified. However, the book also emphasizes that any definitive answer to the question Is affirmative action morally (un)justified? must rest on a wide range of empirical results in the social sciences etc., e.g., about the likely effects of various affirmative action schemes; and that the question, when posed in such general form (unlike when it is asked about specific schemes of affirmative action), admits of no direct positive or negative answer"--

Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen

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