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.

• TWO ODDITIES ABOUT SUFFERING AND DEATH

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 27, 2020 • ( 1 )

  I’m pretty left-brain dominant. And if you find this exhausting, imagine what it’s like for me. So for some respite, for the both of us, here’s one of my rare right-brain moments.  Oddity One: I found out the other day… Read More ›

• HYMIE RUBENSTEIN

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 25, 2020 • ( 3 )

  From a guy named Hymie Rubenstein, what would we expect? If the ‘Rubenstein’ isn’t a dead giveaway, surely the ‘Hymie’ is the clincher. An accountant, probably, but certainly a nebbish, right? Well, apparently not. As it happens Hymie Rubenstein is… Read More ›

• PUSHBACK

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 23, 2020 • ( 3 )

  There are no Italian restaurants in Italy. They’re just restaurants. Similarly, until the late Sixties there was no ‘conservative’ radio. There was just radio. The conservative media became ‘conservative’ only when the mainstream turned to the left. As a result,… Read More ›

• LESS IS MORE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 28, 2020 • ( 0 )

  If you want to know whether you’ve been reporting or commenting, count your adjectives and adverbs. The most effective commentary comes across as reporting, because it lets the facts speak for themselves. If they can’t, and so they have to… Read More ›

• STATUTORY RAPE AND CHILD SOLDIERS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 13, 2020 • ( 0 )

  For most of human history young men were expected to go to war at about the same age that young women were expected to become mothers, probably within about a year of their first period. Were our ancestors just mistaken?… Read More ›

• THE HARMS RACE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 11, 2020 • ( 0 )

  According to John Stuart Mill, in a liberal democracy all is permitted save what is prohibited. And what can be prohibited must be demonstrably harmful. But what’s meant by harm? It can’t be just a setback of interests. Your opening… Read More ›

• THE MISSING SUBJECT ARGUMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 7, 2020 • ( 2 )

  Let me repeat, for the 108th time, that I’m not pro-Life. As I‘ve labored to make clear, I’m anti-Life. I want a world consisting of nothing but inanimate objects. But I have to admit that pro-Lifers have at least one… Read More ›

• QASEM SOLEIMANI AND 2020

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 4, 2020 • ( 2 )

  I’m beginning to suspect that, given who he’s likely to be up against in November, Trump is going to be re-elected in 2020. But as one of his advisers – and I guess in a sense I am, since I… Read More ›

• INDIGENIZATION

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 15, 2019 • ( 1 )

  George Orwell wrote in Animal Farm that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” He could’ve written as readily that we’re all victims, but some of us are more victims than others. Your ancestors were… Read More ›

• TRUTH versus RECONCILIATION

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 15, 2019 • ( 1 )

  The truth-value of an utterance – for example that I’m going to die on such and such a date – is very often at odds with (what J.L. Austin called) its perlocutionary value – what it does for the speaker… Read More ›