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.

• KILLING AND LETTING DIE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 29, 2024 • ( 0 )

  Is there a moral distinction between killing and letting die? There would have to be, since otherwise we’d be culpably responsible for the millions of people who die every year because we didn’t feed them. And that’s a burden too… Read More ›

• THE RELEVANCE OF SOME CONCEPTS OF LAW TO CONTEMPORARY CANCEL CULTURE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 28, 2024 • ( 2 )

  We can worry about the ontology of law, moral or legal, when we’re more at our leisure. But whether moral or legal, it’s an axiom of law that all is permitted save what is prohibited. This is because listing permissions… Read More ›

• STOCKHOLM SYNDROME

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 19, 2024 • ( 1 )

  As of day 100 since October 7th, the Israeli government announced there were 105 hostages still alive. Probably a couple fewer today. But after all this time, I can’t help but wonder if, and if so for how many, Stockholm… Read More ›

• APARTHEID AND GENOCIDE

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 12, 2024 • ( 4 )

  The reason they’re called the Abrahamic religions is that Jews, Christians and Moslems share a common core conception of god. But let’s not be too quick about what follows from this. You and I might share a common conception of… Read More ›

• GAZA AND THE MEN’S RIGHTS MOVEMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 11, 2024 • ( 3 )

  The Israelis started it off, on October 7th, at 1405, and then gradually dropped it to the current count of 1155. As of today, apart from the 51,000 they’re reporting as injured, the Gaza Health Authority has its own latest… Read More ›

• WHY ISRAEL DOESN’T HAVE A RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF

  By paulosophicalvimplications on January 4, 2024 • ( 11 )

  The thing about rhetoric is it can’t afford to ask itself what it means by the words it uses. For example, in justifying Israel’s response to the attack on October 7, the most oft-chanted mantra is that Israel has a… Read More ›

• ACTUS NOVUS INTERVENIENS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 13, 2023 • ( 1 )

  The standard use of the concept is this. Tom wants Dick dead, but he doesn’t want to be charged for the murder himself. So he tells Harry – falsely, let’s suppose – that Dick has cuckolded him, relying on his… Read More ›

• CELEBRATION AND INCITEMENT

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 11, 2023 • ( 1 )

  Amnesty International has always been notoriously silent about Israeli apartheid, because, understandably enough, it doesn’t want to alienate its sizeable Jewish donor base. It ignores a relatively few injustices so it can attract the resources to fight far more. Well,… Read More ›

• ANTISEMITISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 11, 2023 • ( 5 )

  There’s a pattern of fallacious reasoning in political discourse – I don’t know what to call it, but I’m open to suggestions – that goes like this. 1) If I refuse – and I do – to condemn the Hamas… Read More ›

• MORE MATH AND A MODEST PROPOSAL

  By paulosophicalvimplications on December 1, 2023 • ( 2 )

  After seven weeks of ‘precision’ bombing, the IDF, by its own reckoning, has managed to kill 1,000 Hamas soldiers. So only another 34,000 to go. So keeping the kill rate constant, it should only take another four and half years… Read More ›