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The Measurement of Simplicity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Donald J. Hillman
Donald J. Hillman*
Affiliation:
Lehigh University
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Abstract

Various formulations of the principle of simplicity in science are examined and rejected in favor of Goodman's proposal, the essence of which is to concentrate attention upon the predicates that form the extralogical basis of any given theory and to provide measures for comparing the relative structural simplicity of different sets of such predicates. The postulational basis of Goodman's method is set out and explained, together with some important amendments and additions, and a number of theorems are proved, with whose aid the simplest theory to account for a certain corpus of scientific phenomena is readily determinable.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 1962 , pp. 225 - 252
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1962

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Footnotes

∗∗

I wish to thank the referees of this paper for numerous helpful suggestions as to presentation and for correcting several errors.

References

[1] ”On the Simplicity of Ideas,” Journal of Symbolic Logic, 8 (1943), pp. 107–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] ”The Logical Simplicity of Predicates,” ibid., 14 (1949), pp. 32–41.Google Scholar
[3] ”An Improvement in the Theory of Simplicity,” ibid., 14 (1949), pp. 228–229.Google Scholar
[4] The Structure of Appearance, 1951, pp. 59–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[5] ”New Notes on Simplicity,” Journal of Symbolic Logic, Vol. 17 (1952), pp. 189–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[6] ”Axiomatic Measurement of Simplicity,” The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. LII, No. 24, 1955, pp. 702–722.Google Scholar
[7] ”Recent Developments in the Theory of Simplicity,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. XIX, No. 4, 1959, pp. 429–446.Google Scholar