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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.

• THE PRINCIPLE OF DOUBLE EFFECT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 27, 2024 • ( 0 )

  The Principle of Double Effect (PDE) exculpates you for the albeit anticipated consequences of your actions – the so-called collateral damage – provided 1) they were not the intention of your action, 2) they were not the means by which… Read More ›

• KIMBERLY CHEATLE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 27, 2024 • ( 1 )

  So apparently this is how it works: 1) At a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, the United States Secret Service failed to protect presidential candidate Donald Trump. 2) More could have been done towards avoiding this failure…. Read More ›

• THREE UNSEEMLY COMMENTS ABOUT THE BUTLER SHOOTING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 14, 2024 • ( 5 )

  For what little they’re worth, I have three unseemly comments about tonight’s shooting in Butler. The first is: I wonder how long it will be before the nothing-is-as-it-seems junkies decide it’s too much of a coincidence that the shooter went… Read More ›

• ONTOLOGY – third instalment

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 12, 2024 • ( 2 )

  III. ARE THERE KINDS OF BEING?  As we’ve just seen, ontology full stop can’t be about being full stop. But it could be about what kinds of being there are. That horse over there is one kind of being. Pegasus… Read More ›

• ONTOLOGY (continued)

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 11, 2024 • ( 5 )

  II. BEING By ontology-full-stop is meant the study of being. Well that’s not very helpful, now is it? So try this. Of the things that are, as distinct from those that aren’t, what exactly are the former busy doing that… Read More ›

• ONTOLOGY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 11, 2024 • ( 2 )

  This is the first in a series of entries on ontology, by which is meant the study of being. What about being? Well, for one thing what it is to be. For another, what kinds of being are there? And,… Read More ›

• Guest Post: Dissoi Logoi (cf Aristotle), the Devil’s Advocate (Mill), and comments.

  By paulosophicalvimplications on July 2, 2024 • ( 0 )

  Guest Post by Pamela Lindsay. Way, way back in the day — a couple millennia ago — students receiving a classical education would have learned the necessity of Dissoi Logoi to constructing their arguments. That is, they’d throw themselves full… Read More ›

• TWO CONCEPTS OF NON-FALSIFIABILITY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on May 15, 2024 • ( 1 )

  Descartes’ global dream argument predates The Matrix by almost half a millennium. Neither did Men in Black invent the conjecture that we’re in constant contact with creatures from other planets. That they’re fully visible. But they’re also very shy. And… Read More ›

• WHY IT’S A GOOD THING I CAN’T VOTE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 28, 2024 • ( 1 )

  The propaganda war isn’t over what we’re being exposed to. It’s over what we’re exposing ourselves to. So there’s a strong element of complicity in what we believe, be it about global warming, vaccination safety, Gaza, of what have you…. Read More ›

• THE FOG OF WAR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 25, 2024 • ( 0 )

  I’m told – though this could be apocryphal – that more Indians were killed in all those Cowboys and Indians movies and TV shows than the number of Indians there ever were in the Wild West. The number of kills… Read More ›