The Research Seminar Series in Philosophy invites you to a seminar with Karin Enflo, "Dissimilar similarities ".
Abstract:
Consider the following problem: a table is 1 m in length; another table is 3 m in length; how dissimilar are the tables in length? Such a question might occur in a textbook for children. We would immediately answer: 2 m, because we naturally assume that dissimilarity should be measured by absolute difference. But how similar are the tables in length? Now we have ventured into philosophy, since there is no uncontested answer to this question. There are in fact a large number of similarity measures proposed in the literature, and they would give different answers to the question regarding the similarity of the tables. Why is this? I will propose that the variety of similarity measures can be explained by a variety of similarity concepts. Rather than one similarity concept, there are at least three: similarity as commonality, similarity as a function of dissimilarity, and similarity as a joint function of commonality and dissimilarity. The first concept regards the similarity between the tables as a matter of how much they have in common (1 m in length), the second concept regards their similarity as a function of their dissimilarity (this could be interpreted in different ways, but one measure would put it at −2 m), and the third concept regards their similarity as a joint function of commonality and dissimilarity (for example as 1 − 2 = −1 m). This result is surprising, because we are used to thinking of similarity as a single concept.
All interested are welcome to participate in this seminar.
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