A Subjective Measure of Complexity

Guido Fioretti

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), 1999, vol. 02, issue 04, 349-370

Abstract: This article presents a quantitative measure of complexity, subjectively understood as a property of the relationship between a system and its observer instead of as a property of the system itself. Within this framework, complexity is quantified by assuming to know the mental categories and the mental model by which a system is represented in the mind of its observer.It is argued that this subjectivist concept of complexity is not in contrast with objective measures of complexity introduced in particular domains, but generalizes complexity to domains where no objective measure is feasible. An extensive numerical example is presented and thoroughly discussed.

Keywords: Mental categories; mental models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1999
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219525999000187
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:acsxxx:v:02:y:1999:i:04:n:s0219525999000187

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0219525999000187

Access Statistics for this article

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) is currently edited by Frank Schweitzer

More articles in Advances in Complex Systems (ACS) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().