Читать книгу Introduction to Fuzzy Logic - James K. Peckol - Страница 60

Fuzzy logic, with roots in early Greek philosophy, finds a wide variety of contemporary applications ranging from the manufacture of cement to the control of high‐speed trains, auto focus cameras, and potentially self‐driving automobiles. Yet, early mathematics began by emphasizing precision. The central theme in the philosophy of Aristotle and many others was the search for perfect numbers or golden ratios. Pythagoras and his followers kept the discovery of irrational numbers a secret. Their mere existence was also counter to many fundamental religious teachings of the time.

Later mathematicians continued the search for precision and were driven toward the goal of developing a concise theory of mathematics. One such effort was The Laws of Thought published by Stephan Korner in 1967 in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Korner's work included a contemporary version of The Law of Excluded Middle which stated that every proposition could only be TRUE or FALSE – there could be no in between. An earlier version of this law, proposed by Parmenides in approximately 400 BC, met with immediate and strong objections. Heraclitus, a fellow philosopher, countered that propositions could simultaneously be both TRUE and NOT TRUE. Plato, the student, made the same arguments to his teacher Socrates.