Similarity‐based theories of concepts have a broad intuitive appeal and have been successful in accounting for various phenomena related to the formation and application of concepts. Their adequacy as theories of concepts has been questioned, however, as similarity is often taken as too flexible, too unconstrained, to be explanatory of categorization. In this article, I propose an account of similarity that takes the “foil” against which the target items are measured as integral to the process of comparison, making the similarity relation a fundamentally triadic one. I argue that this account delivers more internal constraints on the process of comparison than the traditional, dyadic account of similarity does. Finally, I propose that this account is advantageous for a similarity‐based theory of concepts, as it easily integrates with the notion of conceptual taxonomy and uses it to deliver additional constraints on categorization. On such a theory of concepts, the foil, whose variability is in large part responsible for the flexible nature of similarity judgements, is turned within the framework of conceptual taxonomy to the very element that constrains similarity judgements in categorization. Therefore, this notion of similarity mitigates the worry that similarity is too flexible to be explanatory of categorization.

中文翻译：

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重新构想的相似性（对概念理论有影响）

基于相似性的概念理论具有广泛的直觉吸引力，并已成功地解决了与概念的形成和应用相关的各种现象。然而，由于相似性通常被认为过于灵活，过于局限，无法解释分类，因此人们质疑它们作为概念理论的适当性。在本文中，我提出了一个相似度说明，即将衡量目标项目所依据的“箔”作为比较过程的组成部分，从而使相似度关系从根本上说是三元组。我认为，与传统的相似性二元描述相比，这种描述在比较过程中提供了更多的内部约束。最后，我提出，这种解释对于基于相似性的概念理论是有利的，因为它很容易与概念分类法的概念整合在一起，并使用它为分类提供了更多的限制。在这种概念理论上，箔片的可变性在很大程度上决定了相似性判断的灵活性，因此在概念分类学的框架内将箔片转变为在分类中限制相似性判断的要素。因此，这种相似性概念减轻了人们对相似性太灵活而无法解释分类的担忧。在概念分类学的框架内转向了在分类中限制相似性判断的元素。因此，这种相似性概念减轻了人们对相似性太灵活而无法解释分类的担忧。在概念分类学的框架内转向了在分类中限制相似性判断的元素。因此，这种相似性概念减轻了人们对相似性太灵活而无法解释分类的担忧。