TITLE: Importance of Kripke–Platek set theory
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: What would be importance of Kripke-Platek set theory? I know that Saul Kripke is one of the most important philosophers in the world, but curious in what place he is in set theory.

REPLY [13 votes]: Kripke-Platek set theory is important foundationally as a natural intermediate between weaker theories such as second-order arithmetic and stronger theories such as ZF. 
The transitive models of KP are known as "admissible sets". The ordinals $\alpha$ for which $L_\alpha$ is admissible are called "admissible ordinals". These are key subjects of study in a generalized computability theory known as $\alpha$ recursion theory. In turn, admissible sets are closely related to descriptive set theory. The simplest nontrivial admissible ordinal is $\omega^{CK}_1$ which is tightly connected to hyperarithmetical theory, which $\alpha$ recursion theory generalizes. 
From a different point of view, a key feature of KP is that separation and collection have been restricted to "predicative" formulas. The $\Sigma_0$ formulas that are allowed in these schemes in KP have only bounded quantifiers, which means that they do not quantify over the entire universe of sets, only over a fixed subset of the universe. 
There are also connections between admissible sets and the infinitary logic $L_{{\omega_1},\omega}$. One example of this is the Barwise compactness theorem. 
Two detailed references on this are Generalized Recursion Theory by Sacks and Admissible Sets and Structures by Barwise. I believe both of these are now freely available in Project Euclid.  A shorter survey by Makkai is in the Handbook of Mathematical Logic.

Higher Recursion Theory by Sacks  at projecteuclid
Admissible Sets and Structures by Barwise at projecteulid
Makkai: Admissible Sets and Infinitary Logic (from Handbook of Mathematical Logic By Jon Barwise) at
Google Books