On Zadeh's "The Birth and Evolution of Fuzzy Logic"

Abstract

Lotfi A. Zadeh, in his article entitled "The Birth and Evolution of Fuzzy Logic" discusses R.E. Kalman's and W. Kahan's strong criticisms of fuzzy logic and presents his answers to these criticisms. The main subject of this debate consisted of a discussion of the criticisms targeting at the concept of the linguistic variable and, consequently, at fuzzy logic. The main aim of my paper is to expose the methods of the positive natural sciences which generally form the basis of these criticisms, to analyze and to evaluate scientific and epistemological theories of science historians and philosophers of science such as T.S. Kuhn and K.R. Popper, and to try to show the importance of fuzzy logic in this context. There is a huge amount of work to be done within the framework of the philosophy and sociology of science in order to provide some hints about the future of fuzzy logic, therefore it must be stated that this paper can only be considered as a modest contribution to this vast field.