A philosophical study on fuzzy sets and fuzzy applications

Abstract

The development of fuzzy sets has led to computational theory of perceptions (CTP). This paper presents a philosophical study on fuzzy sets and fuzzy applications and aims towards a deeper understanding about them. Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy can be used to illustrate fuzzy sets. Relating to Wittgenstein's approach, some interesting studies on 'vagueness' appeared before the genesis of fuzzy sets in 1965. We introduce a simple meaning articulation paradigm (MAP) of human meaning processing and apply it to fuzzy applications. The MAP applied to two case studies on fuzzy optimization and on a fuzzy Web query shows that some problems exist in traditional approaches.