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.

• WHAT NOT TO SAY WHEN …

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 21, 2022 • ( 0 )

  All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal. Check. All lives matter. Black lives are lives. Therefore black lives matter. Check. But if you say black lives matter, and I respond with all lives matter, I’ll… Read More ›

• UVALDE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 20, 2022 • ( 0 )

  At the risk of trivialising the death of those kids and their teachers in the latest spate of school shootings, I guess I am going to trivialise the death of those kids and their teachers in the latest spate of… Read More ›

• THE ODDITY OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 20, 2022 • ( 0 )

  As you might have heard, there’s a war not between Russia and Ukraine but rather a war in Ukraine. This is odd, not in the sense that wars are never fought on the territory of one but not the other…. Read More ›

• THE DEMISE OF ROE V WADE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 20, 2022 • ( 7 )

  There is no reason – at least not in principle – why a polity couldn’t assign certain duties to some of its members but not others. For example, men, but not women, are subject to the draft. Nor, therefore, is… Read More ›

• IT’S NOT GENOCIDE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on April 6, 2022 • ( 2 )

  Some people aspire to greatness. Some have greatness thrust upon them. Having had it thrust upon him without his leave, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has carried greatness with the grace of a Nelson Mandela. My admiration for the man knows no bounds…. Read More ›

• PROPAGANDA

  By paulosophicalvimplications on April 5, 2022 • ( 0 )

  When Iraq invaded Kuwait back in ’91, it was reported that Iraqi soldiers were looting incubators from premie wards. I remember wondering at the time whether this was an invention of some Madison Avenue PR firm hired by the Kuwaiti… Read More ›

• RE-ERECTING THE IRON CURTAIN FROM THIS SIDE 

  By paulosophicalvimplications on April 4, 2022 • ( 3 )

  We’ll take Russian oil and gas. We just won’t pay for it. So they’ll cut us off. It’s spring. We’ll shiver, but we won’t freeze. We’ll have to chow down on a little crow from Iran and Venezuela. And we’ll… Read More ›

• THE BUCHA MASSACRE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on April 4, 2022 • ( 0 )

  What’s not in dispute is that the hundreds of civilians who’ve been killed in the suburbs around Kyiv would be alive today but for the Russian invasion. No doubt some were collateral damage, though the Russians will call them human… Read More ›

• UKRAINE, RUSSIA, AND THE DOOLITTLE RAID

  By paulosophicalvimplications on April 1, 2022 • ( 2 )

  Suppose I accuse you of wearing a blue tie on a Tuesday. Surely the most obvious response is, What’s wrong with wearing a blue tie on a Tuesday? Well, Russia is accusing the Ukrainians of having bombed a fuel depot… Read More ›

• THE TRUE MEANING OF LIFE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 30, 2022 • ( 2 )

  In his Introduction to Metaphysics, Martin Heidegger asked, “Why is there something rather than nothing?” It’s a stupid question only in the sense that the answer is so self-evident. Of all the nigh-infinite worlds that could be, there’s only one… Read More ›