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.

• SOME APT COMPARISONS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on October 3, 2020 • ( 1 )

  I tell my students that the only rhetorical overkill, no pun intended, worse than likening some perceived injustice to the Holocaust is likening some perceived villain to Adolf Hitler. But I never allow my advice to apply to me. Accordingly… Read More ›

• RE LAST NIGHT’S PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 30, 2020 • ( 3 )

  When people talk over each other, neither can be heard. But the fault that neither side was heard last night lies not with Donald Trump. That was his well-rehearsed strategy. Rather it lies with Chris Wallace. What he should have… Read More ›

• WHY PATRON AND FARBER?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 29, 2020 • ( 9 )

  Of the hundreds of entires I’ve posted since starting this blog, the least interesting, as far as I can see, is the passing banal comment I made on the contretemps between Travis Patron and Bernie Farber. And yet, for some… Read More ›

• THE REPARATIONS ARGUMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 28, 2020 • ( 3 )

  When receiving an award, be it for this or for that, it’s now considered churlish not to acknowledge that, “We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.” Only at one’s peril should this be confused with “We… Read More ›

• KUMBAYA

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 27, 2020 • ( 3 )

  Matter can neither be created nor destroyed. Well, if true that pretty much puts the kibosh on Creationism. But doesn’t it also rule out the Doctrine of Bodily Ascension? That is, at the moment of Mary’s ascension, the mass of… Read More ›

• JANUARY 20, 2021

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 24, 2020 • ( 4 )

  If Donald Trump wins the election – whether by hook or by crook, it won’t matter, at least not from a Constitutional perspective – then there won’t be a Constitutional crisis to worry about on November 4th. But he’s taken… Read More ›

• BEHIND MY WIFE’S GENTLE EXTERIOR, THERE BE DRAGONS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 24, 2020 • ( 5 )

  Here’s a sobering, albeit quirky, ‘thoughtlet’ I got from my wife this morning: Dreams are a dime a dozen. Martin Luther King had one. So did Ed McCurdy. He dreamt “that men had all agreed to put an end to… Read More ›

• AN ANALYSIS OF MIRACLES IN THREE AWKWARD PHILOSOPHICAL MOMENTS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 21, 2020 • ( 2 )

  I. What is a Law of the Land? Thomas Hobbes thought that in a state of nature there’s “no government at all, except the government of small families, the concord whereof dependeth on natural lust,”  I’m not sure the concord… Read More ›

• THE SCRUM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 18, 2020 • ( 3 )

  *This post was first published on May 11, 2020 English has one distinct advantage over Italian. The distinction between an assertive and interrogative is embedded in the construction of the sentence. In writing Italians have to rely on the question mark,… Read More ›

• FRANCES WIDDOWSON

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 14, 2020 • ( 6 )

  Frances Widdowson is a tenured professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As it happens, I know the woman. And truth be told, I quite like her. Were I confined to a one word description of her it… Read More ›