Читать книгу Introduction to Fuzzy Logic - James K. Peckol - Страница 48

Socrates was one of the early classic Greek philosophers and is often regarded as the founding father of Western philosophy. He is particularly noted for his creation of the Socratic Method in which the teacher repeatedly poses clarifying questions until the student grasps and understands the concept(s) being taught.

Plato, a student of Socrates, formed the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Reflecting the Socratic Method, he wrote dialogues in which the participants discuss, analyze, and dissect a topic from various perspectives. He is also considered the developer of the concept of forms in which an ideal world of forms exists in contrast to a false world of phenomena.

Aristotle, mentored by Plato, brought symbolic logic and the notion of scientific thinking to Western philosophy. In doing so, he contradicted Plato's ideal world of forms with a more pragmatic view and contributed advances in the branch of philosophy known as metaphysics. Among Aristotle's fundamental assertions was that it is impossible to both be something and not be the same thing at the same time. Today, that assertion falls apart in the field of fuzzy logic.

Parmenides was a pre‐Socratic philosopher known as the Philosopher of Changeless Being. He believed that there are two views of reality. One is the way of truth or fact and the other is that change is impossible and existence is unchanging. Over the course of his career, he also had a significant influence on a young Plato.

Heraclitus views contradicted those of Parmenides with his insistence on ever‐present change as fundamental to the universe. Such a view was reflected in his saying: “No man ever steps in the same river twice.” His beliefs continued to identify him as one of the founders of the branch of metaphysics referred to as ontology, which deals with the nature of being.

From these early philosophers and their different views on reality, learning, and reasoning, we have the following classic laws of thought: