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.

• THE MONUMENTAL CRISIS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 23, 2018 • ( 1 )

  The recent spate of monument toppling in America – which has just recently made its way up into Canada – has rendered a long-standing question in social and political philosophy just a tad more urgent. What are we to do… Read More ›

• OWN-PETARD-HOISTING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 21, 2018 • ( 0 )

  The #MeToo movement took a serious hit the other day when it was revealed that Asia Argento, one of the accusers of Harvey Weinstein’s ‘rapacious’ behavior, had herself, even more recently, paid $380,000 to silence a then under-age young man… Read More ›

• FATHERS AND SONS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 21, 2018 • ( 0 )

  Only those with a long memory will get the reference, but in the same way Haiti’s Baby Doc Duvalier was not his father Papa Doc, neither is Justin Trudeau his father Pierre Elliott. Papa Doc and Baby Doc were both… Read More ›

• SMALL TALK AND LARGE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 21, 2018 • ( 0 )

  They’ve been out on a date, he invites her up for a nightcap, she accedes, he makes a pass, and she cries sexual assault. Wouldn’t it be so much easier for all concerned, for the two of them and for… Read More ›

• OF CRIMES BY ASSOCIATION WITH CRIMES

  By paulosophicalvimplications on August 20, 2018 • ( 0 )

  Definitive of the Millian liberalism to which most of us purport to subscribe is the view that a) all is permitted save what is prohibited, and that b) a necessary, albeit insufficient, condition of some behavior being justifiably prohibited is… Read More ›

• 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 ›