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INTRODUCTION
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Analtyics Fuzzy systems is an alternative to traditional notions of set membership and logic that has its origins in
Sess ancient Greek philosophy, and applications at the leading edge of Artificial Intelligence. Yet, despite its
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April 14-15, 2011 - will present the foundations of fuzzy systems, along with some of the more noteworthy objections to its use,
New York City with examples drawn from current research in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Ultimately, it will be
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demonstrated that the use of fuzzy systems makes a viable addition to the field of Artificial Intelligence, and
perhaps more generally to formal mathematics as a whole.
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Natural language abounds with vague and imprecise concepts, such as "Sally is tall," or "It is very hot
today." Such statements are difficult to translate into more precise language without losing some of their
semantic value: for example, the statement "Sally's height is 152 cm." does not explicitly state that she is tall,
and the statement "Sally's height is 1.2 standard deviations above the mean height for women of her age in
her culture" is fraught with difficulties: would a woman 1.1999999 standard deviations above the mean be
tall? Which culture does Sally belong to, and how is membership in it defined?

While it might be argued that such vagueness is an obstacle to clarity of meaning, only the most staunch
traditionalists would hold that there is no loss of richness of meaning when statements such as "Sally is tall"
are discarded from a language. Yet this is just what happens when one tries to translate human language into
classic logic. Such a loss is not noticed in the development of a payroll program, perhaps, but when one
wants to allow for natural language queries, or "knowledge representation" in expert systems, the meanings
lost are often those being searched for.

For example, when one is designing an expert system to mimic the diagnostic powers of a physician, one of
the major tasks is to codify the physician's decision-making process. The designer soon learns that the
physician's view of the world, despite her dependence upon precise, scientific tests and measurements,
incorporates evaluations of symptoms, and relationships between them, in a "fuzzy," intuitive manner:
deciding how much of a particular medication to administer will have as much to do with the physician's
sense of the relative "strength" of the patient's symptoms as it will their height/weight ratio. While some of
the decisions and calculations could be done using traditional logic, we will see how fuzzy systems affords a
broader, richer field of data and the manipulation of that data than do more traditional methods.

HISTORIC FUZZINESS
The precision of mathematics owes its success in large part to the efforts of Aristotle and the philosophers
who preceded him. In their efforts to devise a concise theory of logic, and later mathematics, the so-called
"Laws of Thought" were posited [7]. One of these, the "Law of the Excluded Middle," states that every
proposition must either be True or False. Even when Parminedes proposed the first version of this law
(around 400 B.C.E.) there were strong and immediate objections: for example, Heraclitus proposed that
things could be simultaneously True and not True.

It was Plato who laid the foundation for what would become fuzzy logic, indicating that there was a third

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region (beyond True and False) where these opposites "tumbled about." Other, more modern philosophers
echoed his sentiments, notably Hegel, Marx, and Engels. But it was Lukasiewicz who first proposed a
systematic alternative to the bi-valued logic of Aristotle [8].

In the early 1900's, Lukasiewicz described a three-valued logic, along with the mathematics to accompany it.
The third value he proposed can best be translated as the term "possible," and he assigned it a numeric value
between True and False. Eventually, he proposed an entire notation and axiomatic system from which he
hoped to derive modern mathematics.

Later, he explored four-valued logics, five-valued logics, and then declared that in principle there was
nothing to prevent the derivation of an infinite-valued logic. Lukasiewicz felt that three- and infinite-valued
logics were the most intriguing, but he ultimately settled on a four-valued logic because it seemed to be the
most easily adaptable to Aristotelian logic.

Knuth proposed a three-valued logic similar to Lukasiewicz's, from which he speculated that mathematics
would become even more elegant than in traditional bi-valued logic. His insight, apparently missed by
Lukasiewicz, was to use the integral range [-1, 0 +1] rather than [0, 1, 2]. Nonetheless, this alternative failed
to gain acceptance, and has passed into relative obscurity.

It was not until relatively recently that the notion of an infinite-valued logic took hold. In 1965 Lotfi A.
Zadeh published his seminal work "Fuzzy Sets" ([12], [13]) which described the mathematics of fuzzy set
theory, and by extension fuzzy logic. This theory proposed making the membership function (or the values
False and True) operate over the range of real numbers [0.0, 1.0]. New operations for the calculus of logic
were proposed, and showed to be in principle at least a generalization of classic logic. It is this theory which
we will now discuss.

BASIC CONCEPTS
The notion central to fuzzy systems is that truth values (in fuzzy logic) or membership values (in fuzzy sets)
are indicated by a value on the range [0.0, 1.0], with 0.0 representing absolute Falseness and 1.0 representing
absolute Truth. For example, let us take the statement:
"Jane is old."

If Jane's age was 75, we might assign the statement the truth value of 0.80. The statement could be translated
into set terminology as follows:
"Jane is a member of the set of old people."

This statement would be rendered symbolically with fuzzy sets as:

mOLD(Jane) = 0.80

where m is the membership function, operating in this case on the fuzzy set of old people, which returns a
value between 0.0 and 1.0.

At this juncture it is important to point out the distinction between fuzzy systems and probability. Both
operate over the same numeric range, and at first glance both have similar values: 0.0 representing False (or
non-membership), and 1.0 representing True (or membership). However, there is a distinction to be made
between the two statements: The probabilistic approach yields the natural-language statement, "There is an
80% chance that Jane is old," while the fuzzy terminology corresponds to "Jane's degree of membership
within the set of old people is 0.80." The semantic difference is significant: the first view supposes that Jane
is or is not old (still caught in the Law of the Excluded Middle); it is just that we only have an 80% chance of
knowing which set she is in. By contrast, fuzzy terminology supposes that Jane is "more or less" old, or some
other term corresponding to the value of 0.80. Further distinctions arising out of the operations will be noted
below.

The next step in establishing a complete system of fuzzy logic is to define the operations of EMPTY,
EQUAL, COMPLEMENT (NOT), CONTAINMENT, UNION (OR), and INTERSECTION (AND). Before
we can do this rigorously, we must state some formal definitions:

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Definition 1: Let X be some set of objects, with elements noted as x. Thus,

X = {x}.

Definition 2: A fuzzy set A in X is characterized by a membership function

mA(x)

which maps each point in X onto the real interval [0.0, 1.0]. As mA(x) approaches 1.0, the "grade of
membership" of x in A increases.

Definition 3: A is EMPTY iff for all x, mA(x) = 0.0.

Definition 4: A = B iff for all x: mA(x) = mB(x) [or, mA = mB].

Definition 5: mA' = 1 - mA.

Definition 6: A is CONTAINED in B iff mA <= mB.

Definition 7: C = A UNION B, where: mC(x) = MAX(mA(x),mB(x)).

Definition 8: C = A INTERSECTION B where: mC(x) =MIN(mA(x), mB(x)).

It is important to note the last two operations, UNION (OR) and INTERSECTION (AND), which represent
the clearest point of departure from a probabilistic theory for sets to fuzzy sets. Operationally, the differences
are as follows:

For independent events, the probabilistic operation for AND is multiplication, which (it can be argued) is
counterintuitive for fuzzy systems. For example, let us presume that x = Bob, S is the fuzzy set of smart
people, and T is the fuzzy set of tall people. Then, if mS(x) = 0.90 and uT(x) = 0.90, the probabilistic result
would be:
mS(x) * mT(x) = 0.81

whereas the fuzzy result would be:

MIN(uS(x), uT(x)) = 0.90

The probabilistic calculation yields a result that is lower than either of the two initial values, which when
viewed as "the chance of knowing" makes good sense.

However, in fuzzy terms the two membership functions would read something like "Bob is very smart" and
"Bob is very tall." If we presume for the sake of argument that "very" is a stronger term than "quite," and that
we would correlate "quite" with the value 0.81, then the semantic difference becomes obvious. The
probabilistic calculation would yield the statement
If Bob is very smart, and Bob is very tall, then Bob is a quite tall, smart person.

The fuzzy calculation, however, would yield

If Bob is very smart, and Bob is very tall, then Bob is a very tall, smart person.

Another problem arises as we incorporate more factors into our equations (such as the fuzzy set of heavy
people, etc.). We find that the ultimate result of a series of AND's approaches 0.0, even if all factors are
initially high. Fuzzy theorists argue that this is wrong: that five factors of the value 0.90 (let us say, "very")
AND'ed together, should yield a value of 0.90 (again, "very"), not 0.59 (perhaps equivalent to "somewhat").

Similarly, the probabilistic version of A OR B is (A+B - A*B), which approaches 1.0 as additional factors
are considered. Fuzzy theorists argue that a string of low membership grades should not produce a high
membership grade; instead, the limit of the resulting membership grade should be the strongest membership
value in the collection.

Other values have been established by other authors, as have other operations. Baldwin [1] proposes a set of
truth value restrictions, such as "unrestricted" (mX = 1.0), "impossible" (mX = 0.0), etc.

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The skeptical observer will note that the assignment of values to linguistic meanings (such as 0.90 to "very")
and vice versa, is a most imprecise operation. Fuzzy systems, it should be noted, lay no claim to establishing
a formal procedure for assignments at this level; in fact, the only argument for a particular assignment is its
intuitive strength. What fuzzy logic does propose is to establish a formal method of operating on these
values, once the primitives have been established.

HEDGES
Another important feature of fuzzy systems is the ability to define "hedges," or modifier of fuzzy values.
These operations are provided in an effort to maintain close ties to natural language, and to allow for the
generation of fuzzy statements through mathematical calculations. As such, the initial definition of hedges
and operations upon them will be quite a subjective process and may vary from one project to another.
Nonetheless, the system ultimately derived operates with the same formality as classic logic.

The simplest example is in which one transforms the statement "Jane is old" to "Jane is very old." The hedge
"very" is usually defined as follows:
m"very"A(x) = mA(x)^2

Thus, if mOLD(Jane) = 0.8, then mVERYOLD(Jane) = 0.64. Other common hedges are "more or
less" [typically SQRT(mA(x))], "somewhat," "rather," "sort of," and so on. Again, their definition is entirely
subjective, but their operation is consistent: they serve to transform membership/truth values in a systematic
manner according to standard mathematical functions.

A more involved approach to hedges is best shown through the work of Wenstop [11] in his attempt to
model organizational behavior. For his study, he constructed arrays of values for various terms, either as
vectors or matrices. Each term and hedge was represented as a 7-element vector or 7x7 matrix. He ten
intuitively assigned each element of every vector and matrix a value between 0.0 and 1.0, inclusive, in what
he hoped was intuitively a consistent manner. For example, the term "high" was assigned the vector
0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.7 1.0 1.0

and "low" was set equal to the reverse of "high," or

1.0 1.0 0.7 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0

Wenstop was then able to combine groupings of fuzzy statements to create new fuzzy statements, using the
APL function of Max-Min matrix multiplication.

These values were then translated back into natural language statements, so as to allow fuzzy statements as
both input to and output from his simulator. For example, when the program was asked to generate a label
"lower than sortof low," it returned "very low;" "(slightly higher) than low" yielded "rather low," etc.

The point of this example is to note that algorithmic procedures can be devised which translate "fuzzy"
terminology into numeric values, perform reliable operations upon those values, and then return natural
language statements in a reliable manner.

Similar techniques have been adopted by others, primarily in the study of fuzzy systems as applicable to
linguistic approximation (e.g. [2], [3], [4]). APL appears to be the language of choice, owing to its flexibility
and power in matrix operations.

OBJECTIONS
It would be remarkable if a theory as far-reaching as fuzzy systems did not arouse some objections in the
professional community. While there have been generic complaints about the "fuzziness" of the process of
assigning values to linguistic terms, perhaps the most cogent criticisms come from Haack [6]. A formal
logician, Haack argues that there are only two areas in which fuzzy logic could possibly be demonstrated to
be "needed," and then maintains that in each case it can be shown that fuzzy logic is not necessary.

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The first area Haack defines is that of the nature of Truth and Falsity: if it could be shown, she maintains,
that these are fuzzy values and not discrete ones, then a need for fuzzy logic would have been demonstrated.
The other area she identifies is that of fuzzy systems' utility: if it could be demonstrated that generalizing
classic logic to encompass fuzzy logic would aid in calculations of a given sort, then again a need for fuzzy
logic would exist.

In regards to the first statement, Haack argues that True and False are discrete terms. For example, "The sky
is blue" is either true or false; any fuzziness to the statement arises from an imprecise definition of terms, not
out of the nature of Truth. As far as fuzzy systems' utility is concerned, she maintains that no area of data
manipulation is made easier through the introduction of fuzzy calculus; if anything, she says, the calculations
become more complex. Therefore, she asserts, fuzzy logic is unnecessary.

Fox [5] has responded to her objections, indicating that there are three areas in which fuzzy logic can be of
benefit: as a "requisite" apparatus (to describe real-world relationships which are inherently fuzzy); as a
"prescriptive" apparatus (because some data is fuzzy, and therefore requires a fuzzy calculus); and as a
"descriptive" apparatus (because some inferencing systems are inherently fuzzy).

His most powerful arguments come, however, from the notion that fuzzy and classic logics need not be seen
as competitive, but complementary. He argues that many of Haack's objections stem from a lack of semantic
clarity, and that ultimately fuzzy statements may be translatable into phrases which classical logicians would
find palatable.

Lastly, Fox argues that despite the objections of classical logicians, fuzzy logic has found its way into the
world of practical applications, and has proved very successful there. He maintains, pragmatically, that this
is sufficient reason for continuing to develop the field.

APPLICATIONS
Areas in which fuzzy logic has been successfully applied are often quite concrete. The first major
commercial application was in the area of cement kiln control, an operation which requires that an operator
monitor four internal states of the kiln, control four sets of operations, and dynamically manage 40 or 50
"rules of thumb" about their interrelationships, all with the goal of controlling a highly complex set of
chemical interactions. One such rule is "If the oxygen percentage is rather high and the free-lime and kiln-
drive torque rate is normal, decrease the flow of gas and slightly reduce the fuel rate" (see Zadeh [14]). A
complete accounting of this very successful system can be found in Umbers and King [10].

The objection has been raised that utilizing fuzzy systems in a dynamic control environment raises the
likelihood of encountering difficult stability problems: since in control conditions the use of fuzzy systems
can roughly correspond to using thresholds, there must be significant care taken to insure that oscillations do
not develop in the "dead spaces" between threshold triggers. This seems to be an important area for future
research.

Other applications which have benefited through the use of fuzzy systems theory have been information
retrieval systems, a navigation system for automatic cars, a predicative fuzzy-logic controller for automatic
operation of trains, laboratory water level controllers, controllers for robot arc-welders, feature-definition
controllers for robot vision, graphics controllers for automated police sketchers, and more.

Expert systems have been the most obvious recipients of the benefits of fuzzy logic, since their domain is
often inherently fuzzy. Examples of expert systems with fuzzy logic central to their control are decision-
support systems, financial planners, diagnostic systems for determining soybean pathology, and a
meteorological expert system in China for determining areas in which to establish rubber tree orchards [14].
Another area of application, akin to expert systems, is that of information retrieval [9].

CONCLUSIONS
Fuzzy systems, including fuzzy logic and fuzzy set theory, provide a rich and meaningful addition to
standard logic. The mathematics generated by these theories is consistent, and fuzzy logic may be a
generalization of classic logic. The applications which may be generated from or adapted to fuzzy logic are

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wide-ranging, and provide the opportunity for modeling of conditions which are inherently imprecisely
defined, despite the concerns of classical logicians. Many systems may be modeled, simulated, and even
replicated with the help of fuzzy systems, not the least of which is human reasoning itself.

REFERENCES
[1] J.F. Baldwin, "Fuzzy logic and fuzzy reasoning," in Fuzzy Reasoning and Its Applications, E.H.
Mamdani and B.R. Gaines (eds.), London: Academic Press, 1981.

[2] W. Bandler and L.J. Kohout, "Semantics of implication operators and fuzzy relational products," in
Fuzzy Reasoning and Its Applications, E.H. Mamdani and B.R. Gaines (eds.), London: Academic Press,
1981.

[3] M. Eschbach and J. Cunnyngham, "The logic of fuzzy Bayesian influence," paper presented at the
International Fuzzy Systems Association Symposium of Fuzzy Information Processing in Artificial
Intelligence and Operational Research, Cambridge, England: 1984.

[4] F. Esragh and E.H. Mamdani, "A general approach to linguistic approximation," in Fuzzy Reasoning and
Its Applications, E.H. Mamdani and B.R. Gaines (eds.), London: Academic Press, 1981.

[5] J. Fox, "Towards a reconciliation of fuzzy logic and standard logic," Int. Jrnl. of Man-Mach. Stud., Vol.
15, 1981, pp. 213-220.

[6] S. Haack, "Do we need fuzzy logic?" Int. Jrnl. of Man-Mach. Stud., Vol. 11, 1979, pp.437-445.

[7] S. Korner, "Laws of thought," Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 4, MacMillan, NY: 1967, pp. 414-417.

[8] C. Lejewski, "Jan Lukasiewicz," Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Vol. 5, MacMillan, NY: 1967, pp. 104-
107.

[9] T. Radecki, "An evaluation of the fuzzy set theory approach to information retrieval," in R. Trappl, N.V.
Findler, and W. Horn, Progress in Cybernetics and System Research, Vol. 11: Proceedings of a Symposium
Organized by the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies, Hemisphere Publ. Co., NY: 1982.

[10] I.G. Umbers and P.J. King, "An analysis of human decision-making in cement kiln control and the
implications for automation," Int. Jrnl. of Man-Mach. Stud., Vol. 12, 1980, pp. 11-23.

[11] F. Wenstop, "Deductive verbal models of organizations," Int. Jrnl. of Man-Mach. Stud., Vol. 8, 1976,
pp. 293-311.

[12] L.A. Zadeh, "Fuzzy sets," Info. & Ctl., Vol. 8, 1965, pp. 338-353.

[13] L.A. Zadeh, "Fuzzy algorithms," Info. & Ctl., Vol. 12, 1968, pp. 94-102.

[14] L.A. Zadeh, "Making computers think like people," I.E.E.E. Spectrum, 8/1984, pp. 26-32.

REFERENCES RELATED TO DEFINITIONS OF OPERATORS:

Gougen, J.A. (1969) The logic of inexact concepts. Synthese, Vol. 19, pp 325-373.
Osherson, D.N., & Smith, E.E. (1981) On the adequacy of prototype theory as a theory of concepts.
Cognition. Vol. 9, pp. 35-38.
Osherson, D.N., & Smith, E.E. (1982) Gradedness and conceptual combination. Cognition, Vol. 12, pp. 299-
318.
Roth, E.M., & Mervis, C.B. (1983) Fuzzy set theory and class inclusion relations in semantic categories.
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, Vol. 22, pp. 509-525.
Zadeh, L.A. (1982) A note on prototype theory and fuzzy sets. Cognition, Vol. 12, pp. 291-297.

BASIC REFERENCE ON PROTOTYPE THEORY IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY:

Mervis, C.B., & Rosch, E. (1981) Categorization of natural objects. Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 32,
pp. 89-115.

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SELECTED REFERENCES ON FUZZY SET THEORY GENERALLY & AI

APPLICATIONS:
Jain, R. Fuzzyism and real world problems. In P.P. Wang & S.K. Chang (Eds.), Fuzzy Sets, New York:
Plenum Press.
Zadeh, L.A. (1965) Fuzzy sets. Information and Control, Vol. 8, pp. 338-353.
Zadeh, L.A. (1978) PRUF - A meaning representation language for natural languages. International Journal
of Man-Machine Studies, Vol. 10, pp. 395-460.
Zadeh, L.A. (1983) The role of fuzzy logic in the management of uncertainty in expert systems.
Memorandum No. UCB/ERL M83/41, University of California, Berkeley.

This paper won the "Most Original Paper" Award of Merit at the First Annual Hartford Graduate Center
Computer Science Conference, April 27, 1985.

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