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.

• DOG WHISTLING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 5, 2023 • ( 0 )

  Not unlike phrases – without which we can’t seem to speak – that catch on for a while and then fade away, argument strategies come in waves too. The latest is deciding – pretty much all on your own –… Read More ›

• THE DEAL

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 5, 2023 • ( 1 )

  It’s really just a Prisoners’ Dilemma. Your first choice is you get to listen to whomever you want to listen to and I don’t get to listen to whomever I want to listen to. Your second choice, and it’s my second… Read More ›

• SIX TAKEAWAYS FROM THE WIDDOWSON AFFAIR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 4, 2023 • ( 12 )

  If you’ve read my penultimate entry, you’ll know that last week I invited Frances Widdowson to Lethbridge, as the first post-Covid “Guest of Dishonour” at our Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner series on Saturday, then to give two guest lectures,… Read More ›

• THE WIDDOWSON AFFAIR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 1, 2023 • ( 4 )

  As many Canadians will know – but I’m not sure the story has hit the international wires – I invited a certain Dr. Frances Widdowson to give a talk at the University of Lethbridge on February 1st, on a topic… Read More ›

• THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 28, 2023 • ( 0 )

  For most of human history – and in most parts of the world to this day – there were institutions that work like this: We tell people – priests or commissars – what to tell others, who are then sent… Read More ›

• LET ME MAKE IT SIMPLE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 28, 2023 • ( 10 )

  Freedom of expression has nothing to do with your right to say what’s on your mind. If it did we could simply drive you to an empty field outside of town and pick you up an hour later. In fact… Read More ›

• FOUR THINGS EDI PROPONENTS SHOULD NOT SAY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 23, 2023 • ( 3 )

  I’ve already blogged about this, but to repeat: Universities in the West are in the process of moving past their best before date. Why? Because 1) the economics of university education has changed, both in terms of a) what information… Read More ›

• THE CASE AGAINST – OR AT LEAST THE BANALITY OF – EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 30, 2022 • ( 2 )

  No one thinks we should all get the same stuff. A bed is a piece of stuff, but there isn’t room enough for us all to sleep in the same bed.  Okay, so it’s that some people think we should… Read More ›

• REDUCTION

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 30, 2022 • ( 0 )

  No one can accuse me of being fair. But were I to be, then yes, every discipline has its own vocabulary, its own syntax, its own rules of inference … Words, phrases, sentences, they all take their meaning from the… Read More ›

• PROHIBITED INDUCTIONS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 29, 2022 • ( 4 )

  The empiricist holds that all knowledge comes from experience. Whether that’s true or not, it’s clearly false of any useful knowledge. Assuming I can trust in my own perceptions and the reports of others, I know that every day, up… Read More ›