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.

• TAKING NAMES

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 24, 2021 • ( 4 )

  There’s been a great deal of palaver of late – palaver in which I’m now ashamed to have participated – about the cancel culture that’s now doing a number on the academy. I’m ashamed not because I shouldn’t play my… Read More ›

• HAVING A JORDAN PETERSON MOMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 23, 2021 • ( 2 )

  If I’m talking to you, your pronoun is you. If I’m talking about you but out of earshot of you, then you can’t complain about having been misgendered because you won’t know you were. So it’s only if I’m talking… Read More ›

• ELEVEN DAYS IN MAY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 21, 2021 • ( 0 )

  More people died on American highways the week before 9/11 than in those two towers.  But how much has been spent on guardrails compared to so-called homeland security?  Does this show that Americans care less about their loved ones being… Read More ›

• DO I HAVE THIS RIGHT OR NOT?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 19, 2021 • ( 5 )

  I think it will generally be allowed that unprotected sex is better sex than protected sex. And so one needn’t be an idiot to opt for unprotected sex if there were, say, only a one in a hundred chance of… Read More ›

• THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 17, 2021 • ( 4 )

  Israel could pretend to hold the moral high ground – not in the Muslim world of course, but certainly in the West – from 1948 until the Six Day War in ’67. But whatever might be said of the Palestinians… Read More ›

• HOW TO BE A MORE EFFECTIVE TERRORIST – LESSON SIX

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 10, 2021 • ( 3 )

  PICKING THE RIGHT TARGET I’m on record of having suggested that the targeting of the Twin Towers, though not bad, could have been better. This is because much if not most of Main Street sheds only crocodile tears when Wall… Read More ›

• HOW TO BE A MORE EFFECTIVE TERRORIST – LESSON FIVE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 10, 2021 • ( 0 )

  THE DIRECT APPROACH In Lesson One we asked under what conditions terrorism might be justified, and we concluded that there are no conditions under which it’s not. This is because justification in a state of war is what, were he… Read More ›

• NEAR ENOUGH GOOD ENOUGH

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 7, 2021 • ( 0 )

  As a philosopher – never mind a social and political one – it’s not surprising I’d be pretty keen on freedom of expression. After all, there’s not much point taking the widow’s mite to think about things if, having thought… Read More ›

• CONTEMPORARY TV JOURNALISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 7, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Here’s what counts as TV journalism in this age of infotainment. The interviewer asks a question, the politician delivers her stump speech, which has nothing to do with the question being asked. The interviewer asks another question, and she responds… Read More ›

• THE ANCHOR RACE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 7, 2021 • ( 0 )

  There’s a stiff competition between the three not-really-news news channels, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, as to which can boast the most irritating prime-time anchor. CNN has put three runners in the qualifying heat: Anderson Cooper, the Incessant You-Knower, Chris… Read More ›