Philosophical Applications of Kolmogorov's Complexity Measure

Itzhak Gilboa

No 923, Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science

Abstract: Kolmogorov has defined the complexity of a sequence of bits to be the minimal size of (the description of) a Turing machine which can regenerate the given sequence. This paper contains two notes on possible applications of this complexity notion to philosophy in general and the philosophy of science in particular. The first presents simplicism--a theory prescribing that people would tend to choose the simplest theory to explain observations, where "simple" is defined by (a version of) Kolmogorov's measure. The second suggests a reinterpretation of a simple observation, saying that reality is almost surely too complex to understand, terms such as "good" and "evil" almost surely too complex to define, and so forth.

Date: 1990-10
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/papers/923.pdf main text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Philosophical Applications of Kolmogorov's Complexity Measure (1994)
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:nwu:cmsems:923

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Northwestern University, 580 Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2014. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Fran Walker ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).