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.

• CHARLES DARWIN AND DAVID LEWIS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 24, 2020 • ( 1 )

  I’m not sure we needed Charles Darwin to alert us to this tautology: Things that persist over time do and things that don’t don’t. I’m not sure this explains anything, but yes, a Monarch butterfly keeps its markings over the… Read More ›

• TRUTHS THAT DON’T BEAR SAYING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 18, 2020 • ( 7 )

  When I die, and if I’m remembered at all, it’ll probably be as that misanthropic bastard who authored that scurrilous piece of shite entitled “A Defense of Terrorism.” Sound as it is, I won’t be remembered for the argument. Rather… Read More ›

• BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 15, 2020 • ( 0 )

  ‘cuz you just might get it. Truer words may never be spoken if it turns out the coronavirus delivers on precisely what the environmental movement has been yearning for lo this last half century. In this one fell swoop that… Read More ›

• WHAT DIDN’T KEEP TORQUEMADA UP AT NIGHT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 6, 2020 • ( 1 )

  We live in a bivalent three-dimensional world. There’s left and right, there’s up and down, and there’s forward and back. I say ‘bivalent’ because even if you’re only slightly to the left, or you’re feeling just a little bit down,… Read More ›

• 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 ›