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.

• HOW TO DUMP TRUMP

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 20, 2018 • ( 2 )

  With apologies to Neil Diamond, Have you heard about the frog who dreamed of being a king,and then became one? Well, except for the name and a few other changes, if you talk about D, the story’s the same one…. Read More ›

• WHAT’S A POLITICIAN’S BASE?

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 20, 2018 • ( 0 )

  Apparently in American presidential politics there’s something called a base. The Democrats have one, the Republics have another, and Donald Trump has his very own. Voters who don’t belong to a base can drift from one candidate to another, but… Read More ›

• FAKE NEWS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 20, 2018 • ( 0 )

  What Donald Trump means by fake news is not the reporting of what’s materially false. It’s the reporting as true what only could be true. It could be true – because it would be perfectly understandable if it were –… Read More ›

• THE MOVIE THEATRE INSIDE OUR HEADS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 20, 2018 • ( 0 )

  There’s a movie theatre inside our heads. The projector turns on automatically when we shut our eyes to go to sleep but haven’t yet arrived there. Both sci fi and fantasy flicks leave me cold. They’re like playing dealer’s choice… Read More ›

• THE B SIDE OF BANALITY

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 20, 2018 • ( 0 )

  I’ve been where there has been war, and where there currently is. People who haven’t look at the footage and get a very skewed impression of what war is like. What they don’t see is that, just outside the mise… Read More ›

• CARTOGRAPHICAL IMPERIALISM AND BINARIES

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 20, 2018 • ( 0 )

  Some things could be other than they are. And if they were, well, then I guess things would be different, wouldn’t they? That’s not very interesting. What we find interesting is that decisions could have been made other than they… Read More ›

• LEAVE IT BE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 7, 2018 • ( 0 )

  I think there might be some tension in my position. ‘Tension’ is the term professionalized philosophers have been trained to use in place of the less charitable terms ‘inconsistency’ or ‘contradiction’. Okay, I think I might have inadvertently saddled myself… Read More ›

• THE NEXT FOURTEEN YEARS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 7, 2018 • ( 0 )

  In the words of Shakespeare’s Mark Anthony, “The evil that men do live after them. The good is oft interred with their bones.” Fortunately it’s the opposite with political prognostications. No one remembers if you get it wrong. But if… Read More ›

• THE RECURSIVITY OF SELF-DOUBT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 7, 2018 • ( 0 )

  If I retired now – which not long ago, at sixty-eight, people would have thought was well overdue – how would my life change? I might have to tighten my belt a little, but probably by only one notch. I’d… Read More ›

• DON QUIXOTE’S BLESSING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 2, 2018 • ( 0 )

  Why is it that some truths have to be learned over and over and over again? I suppose it’s because they’re just too hard to believe. I learned about fifteen years ago that many of the people I work with… Read More ›