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237793

Technical notes on a theory of simplicity

Brian M. Scott

pp. 281-289

Abstract

Recently Samuel Richmond, generalizing Nelson Goodman, has proposed a measure of the simplicity of a theory that takes into account not only the polymorphicity of its models but also their internal homogeneity. By this measure a theory is simple if small subsets of its models exhibit only a few distinct (i.e., non-isomorphic) structures. Richmond shows that his measure, unlike that given by Goodman's theory of simplicity of predicates, orders the order relations in an intuitively satisfactory manner. In this note I formalize his presentation and suggest an improvement designed to overcome certain technical difficulties.

Publication details

Published in:

(1996) Synthese 109 (2).

Pages: 281-289

DOI: 10.1007/BF00413770

Full citation:

Scott Brian M. (1996) „Technical notes on a theory of simplicity“. Synthese 109 (2), 281–289.