Concept

Similarity (psychology)

Overview

psychological proximity of two mental representations

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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Foot-ball and gas-jet are in no respect similar--that is, they possess no common point, no identical attribute. Similarity, in compounds, is partial identity. When the _same_ attribute appears in two phenomena, though it be their only common property, the two phenomena are similar in so far forth. To return now to our associated representations. If the thought of the moon is succeeded by the thought of a foot-ball…
William James, The Principles of Psychology, Volume 1
The chapter “ASSOCIATION BY SIMILARITY.” is titled for Similarity; names Similarity twice.
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Suppose we are seeing two buttercups, and we perceive that their colours are similar. This similarity is a physical fact, not a matter of symbols or words; and it certainly seems to be indubitable in a way that many judgments are not. The first thing to observe, in regard to such judgments, is that as they stand they are vague.
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
Names Similarity several times; states what Similarity is.
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Similarity is based on a certain relation between two things; if between two things no relation can be found, there can be no similarity between them, and there is no relation between two things that have no similarity to each other; e.g., we do not say this heat is similar to that colour, or this voice is similar to that sweetness. This is self-evident. Since the existence of a relation between God and man, or…
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
Names Similarity several times; states what Similarity is.
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Substance theory.