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.

• A CONJECTURE ABOUT THE DANGERS OF SAFETY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on October 15, 2022 • ( 5 )

  My wife is a conjecturer. The one she offered me this morning – though I’m sure it was already in the ether – has three elements, and they are as follows:  First, the generation of students I’m now teaching were… Read More ›

• DOING THE WORK

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 28, 2022 • ( 0 )

  There’s a myth being marketed – though I’m skeptical that anyone’s buying it – that those of us who are unjustly privileged able-bodied cisgendered white male settler-colonialists are uncomfortable talking about the unjust privilege of being able-bodied cisgendered white male… Read More ›

• CARING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 28, 2022 • ( 1 )

  I’ve made no secret that of the things I care least about, global warming and the minutes of last night’s city council meeting are pretty much in a dead heat. I say things like this not only because I mean… Read More ›

• STUPIDITY DEFINED

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 28, 2022 • ( 4 )

  Philosophers are in the business of either drawing distinctions or collapsing them. A case of the latter is David Hume’s observation that, all this palaver to the contrary notwithstanding, causation just is correlation. A case of the former is the… Read More ›

• THE WORLD SINCE 1363

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 26, 2022 • ( 2 )

  Whenever you’re in the moment – as distinct from what? outside of it? – it’s often difficult – no, make that impossible – to see it for what, if anything, it really means. But a  moment takes its meaning from… Read More ›

• IS SELF-IDENTIFICATION CRITERIAL OR MERELY EVIDENTIAL?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 9, 2022 • ( 4 )

  Here’s what I trust will be an instructive analogy. There are very few knock-down arguments in philosophy, but Plato’s Euthyphro is one of them. Does God make something good by approving of it, asks Socrates, or does He approve of… Read More ›

• BAFFLEGAB

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 18, 2022 • ( 3 )

  It’s been around since before we emerged from the cave. Or maybe even before we came down from the trees. So the only thing new about it is how it’s beginning to irritate the fuck out of me. It began… Read More ›

• DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE 101

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 15, 2022 • ( 0 )

  Here are some of the enabling axioms we’re going to need, both a) to define distributive justice, and then b) to settle on what a just distribution might look like. Let the x axis be one’s share of the cooperative… Read More ›

• INDUCTION AND STEREOTYPES

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 14, 2022 • ( 0 )

  And while we’re at it, let’s settle once and for all all this blather about stereotyping. A stereotype is just a run-of-the-mill induction, usually performed on a person rather than a more general causal relation. The sun has risen in… Read More ›

• BETWEEN AND AGAINST

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 14, 2022 • ( 0 )

  Okay, let’s get this settled, once and for all. To discriminate is to ascertain the difference between two things and behave accordingly. So, for example, I have a discriminating taste for both wines and curries. I’m also able to –… Read More ›