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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.

• A COMPLETE COURSE IN ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY SHOULDN’T TAKE MORE THAN TWENTY-THREE MINUTES. TIME ME.

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 19, 2017 • ( 0 )

  LESSON #1: DEFINING ONE’S TERMS Environmental Philosophy (henceforth EP) is that series of phonemes and/or chicken scratches that sustains itself by assiduously refusing to define any of the dozen or so terms which can then be randomized to form sentences… Read More ›

• URGENCY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 18, 2017 • ( 1 )

  I have a colleague who’s become a little bored with teaching modus ponens and the Meditations, and instead now fancies himself something of an authority on global warming. The way you become an authority, by the way, is by so… Read More ›

• IN DEFENCE … NO, MAKE THAT IN PRAISE, OF OMAR KHADR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 18, 2017 • ( 0 )

  Here’s a newsflash for all those American servicemen serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. And for their wives. When you enlist in a nation’s armed forces, there’s an understanding that at some point you may be asked to go off somewhere… Read More ›

• WHAT’S WRONG WITH THOSE TRUTHERS?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 18, 2017 • ( 0 )

  The nineteen martyrs of 9/11 were never charged let alone convicted of a crime. This is because – so as not to squander precious prosecutorial resources – we tend not to indict dead people. But now let’s suppose the Truthers… Read More ›

• DENIALISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 18, 2017 • ( 1 )

  ‘Denialism’ is a neologism in search of a meaning. Let’s see if we can find it one. As it turns out we’re going to fail. As it turns out calling someone a denialist is going to have about as much… Read More ›

• SOME CONFIDENTIALITY DILEMMAS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 11, 2017 • ( 0 )

  Most people have their smart phone in their pocket at all times. Most smart phones are also recording devises. If there’s any chance it’ll be a “he said, she said”, stick your hand in your pocket and press the record… Read More ›

• TENNYSON’S ULYSSES

  By paulosophicalvimplications on June 11, 2017 • ( 0 )

  I’m told that “May you live in interesting times!” was actually an old Chinese curse. I guess the Chinese are ill-disposed to excitement. “Soooo,’ I ask my Chinese friend, “what’s happenin’ that’s interesting?” “Nothing,” he answers. “Thank God,” he adds…. Read More ›

• THE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DEBATE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 15, 2017 • ( 0 )

  In the course of his travels, Gulliver came upon an island very much like our own. Not unlike how it was for us, the complementarity of their genitalia was for most of their history the sine qua non of reproduction,… Read More ›

• THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUTHERS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 11, 2017 • ( 1 )

  Hans Kuhn observed that a scientific hypothesis survives, and rightly so, until a better one comes along. But surely there are some hypotheses which, notwithstanding we don’t yet have – perhaps we’ll never have – an alternative to replace it,… Read More ›

• THE HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 10, 2017 • ( 2 )

  In the same way that my first year students have a penchant for starting their papers with “For thousands of years philosophers have wondered …”, I like to start mine with “Of the things I care least about, in a… Read More ›