  This paper discusses a new measure that is adaptable to certain intervalic
probability frameworks, possibility theory, and belief theory. As such, it has
the potential for wide use in knowledge engineering, expert systems, and
related problems in the human sciences. This measure (denoted here by F) has
been introduced in Smithson (1988) and is more formally discussed in Smithson
(1989a)o Here, I propose to outline the conceptual basis for F and compare its
properties with other measures of second-order uncertainty. I will argue that F
is an indicator of nonspecificity or alternatively, of freedom, as
distinguished from either ambiguity or vagueness.
