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.

• 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 ›

• INTER-GENERATIONAL JUSTICE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 15, 2019 • ( 2 )

  Dr. Doolittle can talk with all the animals. I can only talk with my dog. Still, I can testify – because she’s assured me of this – that she doesn’t think of me as belonging to a different species. She… Read More ›

• GENOCIDE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on November 23, 2019 • ( 1 )

  We’re told that the meaning of a word is its use. Alright then, let’s see how the word is used. By genocide is meant the killing of a people. Well, not quite. Suppose a plague had killed off the Amalekites… Read More ›

• THE PLIGHT OF THE ANTI-SEMITIC SEMITE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 26, 2019 • ( 1 )

  Down the hall in the English Department, we have an otherwise highly respected colleague who believes, and I quote, that “Any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitism.” I take this to mean that if the Israelis decided to… Read More ›

• BLACKFACE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 22, 2019 • ( 5 )

  Should there be a statute of limitations? For some crimes, yes, for others no, and we can argue about which is which. But should there be a statute of limitations on purely moral accountability for saying and doing stupid things?… Read More ›

• GENDER IDENTITY – WHO GETS TO SAY?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 22, 2019 • ( 4 )

  Unless you’re some kind of natural law theorist – in which case there’s no talking to you – let it be granted that all rights are contingent on the material conditions recommending them to us. And at that, they’re negotiated…. Read More ›

• THE ADVANTAGES OF PRETENDING-TO-BELIEVE OVER BELIEVING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 16, 2019 • ( 2 )

  I find it amazing how many people in western Libya, who supported Gaddafi when it looked like he was going to able to hold Tripoli, will have having not supported him when it became clear that he wasn’t. (I also… Read More ›

• IN DEFENSE OF BERNARD VALCOURT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on September 15, 2019 • ( 2 )

  At the risk of sounding racist … oh what the hell, I can just play my J-card – ex-Tory MP Bernard Valcourt was dead right to object to the MMIWG enquiry calling the murder of indigenous women “the Canadian genocide”…. Read More ›