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.

• 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 ›

• RIGHTS-TALK AND THE CURRENT PROPAGANDA WAR

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 25, 2024 • ( 0 )

  Depending on when you start counting – and depending on who’s doing the counting – Jews and Arabs have been at war in Palestine since the first implementation of the Balfour Declaration in the early 1920’s, or since the Naqba… Read More ›

• RIGHTEOUS KILLING

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 23, 2024 • ( 1 )

  Most of us draw the distinction – and thankfully the law does too – between celebrating an illegal act and advocating one, and then between advocating one and inciting one. For example, I’ve made no secret that I thought 9/11… Read More ›

• IT’S CLEARLY THE JEWS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 18, 2024 • ( 1 )

  I have a colleague – okay, he was a colleague, but neither of us works there anymore – who believes that nothing is what it seems. Well no, because if nothing is what it seems, that would have to include… Read More ›

• TWO MILDLY BIGOTED COMPLAINTS

  By paulosophicalvimplications on March 3, 2024 • ( 4 )

  I started this blog off a number of years ago with a series of curmudgeon-isms, and embarrassed though I am to return to that theme, last week leaves me no choice. My first complaint is the indecipherability of public address… Read More ›

• OF BIGOTRY AND CONSERVATISM

  By paulosophicalvimplications on February 12, 2024 • ( 1 )

  Some people think there are too many people in the world. Others think they’re just not properly distributed. That is, too much food is where the locals don’t need it, and too little of it is where the locals do…. Read More ›