Abstract This paper considers whether an analogy between distance and dissimilarity supports the thesis that degree of dissimilarity is distance in a metric space. A traditional way to justify the thesis would be to prove representation and uniqueness theorems, according to which if comparative dissimilarity meets certain qualitative conditions, then it is representable by distance in a metric space. But I will argue that those qualitative conditions which are strong enough to capture the analogy between distance and dissimilarity are not met by either actual or possible particulars.

中文翻译：

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距离和差异

摘要本文考虑距离与相似度之间的类比是否支持这样的论点，即相似度是度量空间中的距离。证明该论点的传统方法是证明表示和唯一性定理，根据这些定理和唯一性定理，如果比较不等式满足一定的定性条件，则可以用度量空间中的距离表示。但是我将争辩说，那些足够强大的定性条件足以捕捉到距离和相异性之间的类比，无论是实际的还是可能的细节都无法满足。