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- Douven, Igor, et al.
(författare)
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Conceptual spaces and the strength of similarity-based arguments
- 2022
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Ingår i: Cognition. - : Elsevier BV. - 0010-0277. ; 218
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Central to the conceptual spaces framework is the thought that concepts can be studied mathematically, by geometrical and topological means. Various applications of the framework have already been subjected to empirical testing, mostly with excellent results, demonstrating the framework's usefulness. So far untested is the suggestion that conceptual spaces may help explain certain inferences people are willing to make. The experiment reported in this paper focused on similarity-based arguments, testing the hypothesis that the strength of such arguments can be predicted from the structure of the conceptual space in which the items being reasoned about are represented. A secondary aim of the experiment concerned a recent inferentialist semantics for indicative conditionals, according to which the truth of a conditional requires the presence of a sufficiently strong inferential connection between its antecedent and consequent. To the extent that the strength of similarity-based inferences can be predicted from the geometry and topology of the relevant conceptual space, such spaces should help predict truth ratings of conditionals embodying a similarity-based inferential link. The results supported both hypotheses.
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| 2. |
- Douven, Igor, et al.
(författare)
-
Similarity-based reasoning in conceptual spaces
- 2023
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychology. - 1664-1078. ; 14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Whereas the validity of deductive inferences can be characterized in terms of their logical form, this is not true for all inferences that appear pre-theoretically valid. Nonetheless, philosophers have argued that at least some of those inferences—sometimes called “similarity-based inferences” —can be given a formal treatment with the help of similarity spaces, which are mathematical spaces purporting to represent human similarity judgments. In these inferences, we conclude that a given property pertains to a category of items on the grounds that the same property pertains to a similar category of items. We look at a specific proposal according to which the strength of such inferences is a function of the distance, as measured in the appropriate similarity space, between the category referenced in the premise and the category referenced in the conclusion. We report the outcomes of three studies that all support the said proposal.
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