FUZZINESS: An epistemological evaluation
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1368 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
According to M. ZELENY: “Any notion of fuzziness can be meaningful only in dependency on human systems, human observers, and human tools and strategies to describe reality: That is, human beings are the only and exclusive source of fuzziness in linguistic labelling — there is no other source” (1984, p.301).
While this is evident, it is also true of any knowledge and will remain so until some hypothetical non-human knowledge should appear.
Fuzzy models try to codify, measure and diminish ambiguities in natural languages and labels and, quoting I.R. GOODMAN and H.T. NGUYEN, we should remember that “The most complex mathematical expressions are meaningless unless they represent concepts at least theoretically expressable in natural language” (1985, p.13).