(no subject)

[timelets]

WRT http://wyradhe.livejournal.com/333403.html and http://timelets.livejournal.com/32335.html - one can always find similarities between two objects or events. The real question should be why bother about a particular similarity set between two people. To me, the similarities b/w Jodl and Khodorkovsky cited by wyradhe have very little to do with them being indicators of the deeper historical processes in Germany and Russia, respectively.

...given only a moderate generosity, any two objects can be shown to share an infinite number of properties (Goodman 1972, Medin 1989). For example, a raven is like a writing desk (recall the Mad Hatter’s question) because both are found above ground, both stand on legs, both are rotating around the sun, both weigh less than two tons, both are less than 100 meters long, both are avoided by earthworms, both ought to be made to shut up (Sam Loyd), and so forth. 121 If it is the number of shared properties that determines the similarity of objects, then any two objects will be arbitrarily similar. Source: Conceptual Spaces. The Geometry of Thought.