Author Archives

I'm a philosophy professor at the University of Lethbridge in Southern Alberta, Canada. I specialize in philosophy of war, game theory, contractarianism, and theodicy (the Problem of Evil). I am bald, fat, and ugly, but my wife loves me, so I don't care.

• HUMOUR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 18, 2021 • ( 0 )

  There’s an important difference between twisted and sick. Dead baby jokes are twisted, but telling them at a SIDS funeral is sick. It might relieve the tension in the room, but I’d hold off unless you really know your crowd…. Read More ›

• SNOW DAYS IN SEPTEMBER

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 17, 2021 • ( 0 )

  A few years ago, the University of Lethbridge went from thirteen-week semesters to twelve. And then this fall, between Virtue Signalling Day (September 30) and cancelling classes today to perform a completely gratuitous Covid reset, we’re down to eleven. If… Read More ›

• PARTISAN BLEATING AND UNSEEMLINESS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 13, 2021 • ( 1 )

  When you’re at war, it’s perfectly understandable that you’ll mourn your own losses, both military and civilian, you’ll rejoice in the losses of the enemy’s combatants, and you’ll pretty much ignore his ‘collateral’ losses, which before and since have been a… Read More ›

• ON THIS TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 7, 2021 • ( 0 )

  All other things being equal – in this case being equally just anybody – some of us will be saints, some of us will be assholes, but most of us will be neither. For example, the likelihood of an American… Read More ›

• THE REPUBLIC OF GILEAD

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 3, 2021 • ( 4 )

  In the Morgentaler Decision (1988), the Supreme Court of Canada very wisely did an end-run around the metaphysical status of the foetus and chose instead to decriminalize abortion on the grounds that variability in access violated the constitution’s equal protection… Read More ›

• A TALE OF TWO CITIES

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 27, 2021 • ( 1 )

  Salvador Allende was elected President of Chile in 1970 with about a third of the popular vote. Though lionized in places like U of C Berkeley, his popularity never did improve in Chile. Alas, a prophet is never honoured in… Read More ›

• COLLABORATORS NEVER LEARN

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 27, 2021 • ( 1 )

  When a foreign army invades and occupies your country, you need to compare the short-term payoff for collaboration with the probability of being executed by the resistance, or by your countrymen if and when the occupier is driven out. Assurances… Read More ›

• THE FORTHCOMING FALL OF KABUL

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 13, 2021 • ( 1 )

  When the Americans overthrew the Taliban in 2001 the latter were given the same advice that was given to the Vietcong when the Americans sent their ‘advisors’ into Saigon in the early ’60’s. Stay militarily relevant and wait. Fifteen years… Read More ›

• TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION DAY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 12, 2021 • ( 6 )

  A couple of years ago, here at the University of Lethbridge, we went from a thirteen week semester to twelve, and so from 32.5 hours of instruction per course to 30. Much of what counts as instruction at the primary… Read More ›

• IN PRAISE OF COLONIALISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 31, 2021 • ( 1 )

  There’s a German film called Run Lola Run, which explores the radically different ways things would have gone if some seemingly inconsequential happenstance had been nigh-indiscernibly different. And there’s an American Christmas classic called It’s a Wonderful Life, in which… Read More ›