Sunday, December 26, 2010

Philosophy in the Spam Filter

I'm preparing to visit family, and I'm uncertain what internet access I'll have until after New Year's. But there will be some posts that I've pre-scheduled.

In the meantime, I was cleaning out spam that had been caught in my spam filter and found some of it rather funny; I'd heard about spammers using bots that have algorithms to make comments more relevant, or more relevant-like, but I hadn't come across them before. And what I discovered is that Viagra is apparently relevant to all philosophical problems, albeit in a slightly risqué way. But some of them are amusing, and it serves as a way to revisit some old posts.

On a 2007 post about testimonial injustice:

Agree, It's anoying when some people 20 years ago, disapproved the use of the generic viagra because was against the nature and bla bla and now this product helps a lot of people around the world. Thanks for sharing.

While it's certainly not true that taking viagra is, as such, unnatural I'm not so sure this is true of every intention with which it is used. But that's only loosely related to testimonial injustice, if at all.

On a 2008 post about appeal to intuitions in philosophy:

I think it is convenient that we trust our intuitions because most of the time they are warning symbols. I have noticed that since I am taking viagra online I have more intuitions.

Since the point of the post is that there is no good account of what counts as an intuition, I suppose one could call them intuitions; and I suppose they are 'warning symbols'. But, of course, there's no particular reason to think more intuitions are a good thing.

On a 2008 post that quotes Aquinas on two kinds of division:

You're right, I think the species, always the members of the division, are on a par in the point, and you can find more information from Generic Viagra and then you can fix this blog. By the way I do work in early modern philosophy, like you do.

I suppose that's one way to respond to the currently bad job market; but who knew that generic viagra provided information on medieval logic? I bet you didn't know that.

On a 2008 post about Virginia Woolf's famous claim that she had to kill the angel in the house:

I liked the headline above, and I agree with you about the womens. I do not believe that you know, maybe you can share things from Generic Viagra and that would be great. It becomes not merely art that they can inspire but the state to which they are expected to aspire.

So viagra becomes not merely art that they can inspire but the state to which they are expected to aspire? That sounds a bit disturbing. But it does tie in with occasional feminist worries about the potential dangers of a Viagra culture.

On a 2007 post about the virtue of epieikia:

First of all, it is pretty important to define justice since several points of view because in my opinion it is not fair to have someone in jail because of misdemeanor. I think it is so cruel that thy can not take viagra online.

Well, that isn't too far from epieikia, of course; but it's a stronger position than I think most people would argue.

Of course, there are some non-philosophy ones. On a 2008 post about deus ex machina and children's stories:

I like Narnia because it is a mix of fantastic elements all creating a scary story out of innocence! I remember I read the last book and I couldn't stop until I finished it! I had to take much viagra online.

Also a bit disturbing; not my response to The Last Battle at all. He seems to have misunderstood the point of "further up and further in."