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.

• DOGWHISTLING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 25, 2020 • ( 1 )

  If I ask whether the blind date you’re setting me up with is good looking, and you answer that she has a wonderful personality, you’re not just saying something about her personality. Likewise, then, no one denies that all lives… Read More ›

• HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 23, 2020 • ( 3 )

  Let me give you a heads up. Whatever you’re most sensitive about, I’m probably going to be insensitive to it. This is regrettable, by which is meant it’s able to be regretted, but apparently not by me. Here I offer just… Read More ›

• MY PICK FOR VP

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 21, 2020 • ( 1 )

  If nothing else, you’ve got to admire the consistency of people who never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. So against a vigorous 73 year old, what do the Dems do? They put up a doddering 77 year old…. Read More ›

• THE DEVIL’S LAMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 20, 2020 • ( 1 )

  They say the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist. Not so. In fact his greatest frustration is that he can’t convince the world he does. I have a recently retired colleague for whom… Read More ›

• WHY I’M AN ANTI-ANTI-RACIST

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 20, 2020 • ( 0 )

  Look, people, it’s not rocket science. Just as we humans know that dogs come in different shapes and sizes and colours, dogs know that humans come in different shapes and sizes and colours. But they don’t think to sort us… Read More ›

• SOME PUZZLES ABOUT RACISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 19, 2020 • ( 5 )

  I’m not sure what racism is, but I am sure no one else does either. I know it’s a term of opprobrium, like ’sexism’ or ‘fascism’ or ‘colonialism’. But what exactly is the accuser accusing the accused of? A racist can’t… Read More ›

• INDIGENOUS EXCEPTIONALISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 17, 2020 • ( 0 )

  In early May of 1463, a full twenty-nine years before Columbus ‘discovered’ what was to the Europeans the ‘new world’, a boatload of Mi’kmaq from what is now Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, set sail – actually they rowed… Read More ›

• DEFUNDING THE POLICE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 7, 2020 • ( 0 )

  There’s a movement afoot in America, one that predates the current fuss over the George Floyd killing, to defund the police, if not entirely then certainly by some amount in excess of just a little. If we want to reduce… Read More ›

• AMERICA’S BEST

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 4, 2020 • ( 0 )

  The German people can be forgiven for electing Hitler in 1933. They didn’t know. Perhaps even he didn’t know. After all, events have a way of overtaking themselves. But we’re told they’d have ratified that choice as late as April, 1945…. Read More ›

• TRUDEAU’S 21 SECONDS OF SILENCE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 3, 2020 • ( 0 )

  I thought nothing could outdo Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, until … The other day, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked by a reporter what he thought of Donald Trump’s words and actions in response to the… Read More ›