I’m a lone gunman, and I kill someone because and only because he’s black, or Indian, or Jewish, or Palestinian. Have I committed genocide? Clearly not. Suppose there’s a number of us, and we kill a number of people because… Read More ›
genocide
FROM THE THINGS NOT TO THINK ABOUT FILE
When we say “It’s a little known fact that …”, we usually mean precisely that. But since I’m a philosopher rather than a polymath, I like to use the phrase to refer to something that if you think about it,… Read More ›
TAKING SIDES
It’s hard sometimes for students of history to remember they’re also living in history. That I’m no exception I find embarrassing. I’m embarrassed because I’m upset about Ukraine and Palestine. But why? National borders change with the alacrity of the… Read More ›
THE GENOCIDE DEBATE REVISITED
Harris and Trump are calling each other a fascist. But either claim will die the death of a thousand qualifications. So it’s not a claim. It’s what Wittgenstein would call a move in a language game called political rhetoric. Fair… Read More ›
APARTHEID AND GENOCIDE
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 ›
JUST DO THE MATH
At any given time, there are about 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza, which means at least 50,000 live births per year, which means about an extra, say, 24,000 young men reaching fighting age per year. So even if only a… Read More ›
MANDATORY EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY
On the surface this latest addition to woke Newspeak would seem to be an oxymoron. But this might be too quick. A conscript is a conscript, but he does have an opportunity to learn a trade. And compulsory education –… Read More ›
“YES, BUT WHERE ARE YOU REALLY FROM?”
Ludwig Wittgenstein, arguably the most insightful philosopher of the 20th Century, made the following seemingly paradoxical (but now considered banal) observation. Pretty much everything makes sense until we try to make sense of it. So we’d have been just fine… Read More ›
IT’S NOT GENOCIDE
Some people aspire to greatness. Some have greatness thrust upon them. Having had it thrust upon him without his leave, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has carried greatness with the grace of a Nelson Mandela. My admiration for the man knows no bounds…. Read More ›
WHAT, IF ANYTHING, IS WRONG WITH GENOCIDE?
— for presentation on October 7, 2009, and again on October 4, 2012, for the Liberal Education Capstone course on genocide —
Paulosophical Vimplications 