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.

• THE MOUNT ROYAL LEAD

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 16, 2021 • ( 1 )

  It was bound to happen, and now it has. Right across the country there has long since been, and rightly so, lower admission standards for indigenous students. But Mount Royal University is currently in the process of drawing up a… Read More ›

• STUPID IDEA # 416

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 16, 2021 • ( 0 )

  There are some million and a half people in Canada – about 5% of the population – who, in my own lifetime, have been named, renamed, and renamed again, first as Indians, then natives, then First Nations, and now indigenous…. Read More ›

• THE ONTOLOGY OF PEOPLES AND THEIR DECOLONISATION

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 6, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Once upon a time there were peoples living in North America who were as different from one another as were the peoples living in Europe from one another at the same time. As in Europe, these peoples spoke different languages,… Read More ›

• WHY JAGMEET SINGH WILL NEVER BE PRIME MINISTER

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 5, 2021 • ( 7 )

  Apparently Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, doesn’t know the difference between a mass grave, as in the former Yugoslavia, and a cemetery here in Canada, like the one in Kamloops, B.C. In the former 215 people… Read More ›

• HELP!

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 4, 2021 • ( 5 )

  Could someone please tell me what ‘decolonisation’ means? Anyone? ANYONE? The dictionary tells me it’s the process of withdrawing from a former colony, leaving it independent. So if I’m being asked to decolonise my classroom, I’m guessing I – or… Read More ›

• THE DEAN’S LETTER

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 4, 2021 • ( 3 )

  On Monday, May 31, 2021, Matt Letts, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Lethbridge, sent the following missive to all members of the Faculty. Statement on Residential School News – *trigger warning* Dear… Read More ›

• OF DISCOMFORT AND VULNERABILITY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 27, 2021 • ( 3 )

  I think if I were Jewish – which, come to think of it, I am – I’d be far more comforted being assured the Holocaust didn’t happen than being constantly reminded that it did. So I’m not sure how so… Read More ›

• RETALIATORY DEPLATFORMING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 26, 2021 • ( 2 )

  So here’s what I’m proposing. We create a data base of anyone who’s participated in a deplatforming. Anyone who’s signed a deplatforming petition. Anyone who’s publicly lobbied for such a deplatforming. Any administrator who’s caved to any such deplatforming campaign. … Read More ›

• CHOICE FOR WOMEN, BUT NONE TO BE ONE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 26, 2021 • ( 0 )

  What we might call the weak pro-Lifer believes that 1) the foetus is a person, 2) it’s wrong to kill persons, and so 3) it’s wrong to have an abortion. Is this incompatible with the pro-Choice position? Not at all…. Read More ›

• MYANMAR, BELARUS, XINJIANG, AND ALABAMA

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 25, 2021 • ( 1 )

  I can’t help wondering what Americans would do if Alabama decided to reinstate black slavery. People who are about to do something the international community is bound to regard as beyond the rights of sovereignty – the military coup in… Read More ›