If you’ve read my penultimate entry, you’ll know that last week I invited Frances Widdowson to Lethbridge, as the first post-Covid “Guest of Dishonour” at our Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner series on Saturday, then to give two guest lectures,… Read More ›
Critical Thinking
STUPIDITY DEFINED
Philosophers are in the business of either drawing distinctions or collapsing them. A case of the latter is David Hume’s observation that, all this palaver to the contrary notwithstanding, causation just is correlation. A case of the former is the… Read More ›
BAFFLEGAB
It’s been around since before we emerged from the cave. Or maybe even before we came down from the trees. So the only thing new about it is how it’s beginning to irritate the fuck out of me. It began… Read More ›
INDUCTION AND STEREOTYPES
And while we’re at it, let’s settle once and for all all this blather about stereotyping. A stereotype is just a run-of-the-mill induction, usually performed on a person rather than a more general causal relation. The sun has risen in… Read More ›
BETWEEN AND AGAINST
Okay, let’s get this settled, once and for all. To discriminate is to ascertain the difference between two things and behave accordingly. So, for example, I have a discriminating taste for both wines and curries. I’m also able to –… Read More ›
TALK AS STUPID AS IT IS CHEAP
Just when I thought I’d plumbed the depth of Administration stupidity with my entry entitled “The Dean’s Letter”, Pamela Lindsay, my part time research assistant and full time wife – has just brought to my attention what makes Matt Letts… Read More ›
UVALDE
At the risk of trivialising the death of those kids and their teachers in the latest spate of school shootings, I guess I am going to trivialise the death of those kids and their teachers in the latest spate of… Read More ›
HOW TO BOIL FROG
THE NON-IDENTITY OF INDISCERNIBLES – and, apparently, the discernibility of identicals – IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE – or – HOW TO BOIL FROG Paul Viminitz <vimip0@uleth.ca> Philosophy, U. of Lethbridge Abstract Without in any wise restricting its egress from… Read More ›
AN UNSEEMLY THOUGHT EXPERIMENT ABOUT DESMOND TUTU
Here’s a fascinating statistical anomaly. Every Canadian soldier killed during the twenty year occupation of Afghanistan was eulogized as the finest human being who ever walked the Earth. Not a single asshole among them! Oh, and don’t forget that “He… Read More ›
INDIGENOUS SCIENCE
Some academics argue that, the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Incas aside, the indigenous peoples of this hemisphere were at a pre-scientific level of development, and so there’s really no such thing as indigenous science. I think this mischaracterizes the case. … Read More ›
Paulosophical Vimplications 