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 STRIKE AT THE SALT MINE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 10, 2022 • ( 3 )

  The salt mine where I work, a.k.a. the University of Lethbridge, is on strike as of 11 AM this morning, Thursday, February 10th. Because there’s never been a strike since the university was founded, we have a strike fund that… Read More ›

• SITE UPDATE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 9, 2022 • ( 0 )

  My research assistant, bless her cotton socks, has been adding some of my published and unpublished papers to this site. She’s also created a new category on the home page for some of my unpublished more technical papers. These are… Read More ›

• HOW THE ‘LIKE-ALIKE’ AXIOM REALLY PLAYS OUT IN MORAL AND POLITICAL JUDGMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 9, 2022 • ( 0 )

  Abstract This paper reads like – because it is – a meditation. Its ‘moments’ are these: That like cases are to be treated alike seems to be the core axiom behind all our moral and political reasoning. And yet this… Read More ›

• A PROOF THAT EGALITARIANISM IS EITHER FALSE OR BANAL

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 7, 2022 • ( 0 )

  Abstract  In this paper I argue that the only equality that need be postulated between agents qua heading into a theory of normative ethics and/or politics is that the agents in question be equally involved in interactivity in which there’s… Read More ›

• A PROOF THAT LIBERTARIANISM IS EITHER FALSE OR BANAL

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 7, 2022 • ( 1 )

  Abstract  In this paper I consider all 243 positions that could constitute libertarianism and show that all but a few are false and the few remaining are banal. I argue further that all 243 versions must issue a promissory note… Read More ›

• THE REDUCTION OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE TO TRIBUTE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 7, 2022 • ( 0 )

  Von Clausewitz thought that war is just the continuation of politics by other means. I hold that it’s exactly the reverse. But if all political categories are reducible, without remainder, to military ones, to what are considerations of distributive justice… Read More ›

• CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD (Repost, November 2020)

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 6, 2022 • ( 1 )

  Presented at the Seventh World Conference on Metaphysics at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, Spain, Oct 24-27, 2018 ABSTRACT: By a political theodicy is meant an attempt to harness our theological resources to ameliorate the evil we do and suffer… Read More ›

• WHAT IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 6, 2022 • ( 0 )

  In this paper I attempt to rescue the notion of a crime against humanity from the charge that it is either redundant or else a pseudo-concept. I argue that crimes against humanity are gross violations of basic human rights when… Read More ›

• WHAT, IF ANYTHING, IS WRONG WITH GENOCIDE?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 6, 2022 • ( 0 )

  — for presentation on October 7, 2009, and again on October 4, 2012, for the Liberal Education Capstone course on genocide —

• PACIFISM, ADVOCACY, AND POPULATION DYNAMICS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 4, 2022 • ( 0 )

  – for presentation at the ILECS in Belgrade on June 23, 2012 – Viminitz, Paul. “Pacifism, advocacy, and population dynamics.” Belgrade Philosophical Annual 25 (2012): 281-291.