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From: mackw@bytex.com
Subject: Re: Fuzzy theory or probability theory? 
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Message-ID: <1994Dec6.143006.18188@newsserver.rrzn.uni-hannover.de>
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Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 15:35:56 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.stat.math:3527 comp.ai.fuzzy:3564


In article <1994Dec3.021337.18334@decan.gate.net>, <sthomas@decan.gate.net> 
writes:
> I still insist that any utterance "A and not A" has no meaning in 
> natural language, at least not in the normal sense of the conjunctive
> "and".  
> 
> As a mathematical formalism I have no quarrel
> with defining the min-max operators the way they have been in the 
> Zadehian development.  The difficulty I have is when it is asserted that
> this formalism accurately represents the use of terms in a natural 
> language.  
> 
Good point Mr. Thomas!  You are quite right in asserting fuzzy logic is a 
different language than english, and so is boolean logic, arithmetic, etc.
I think sometimes we get so used to automatically translating that we 
forget the fuzzy logic rule 

	Suspect = Tall AND (NOT)Tall

is not equivalent to the english description

	The suspect is tall and not tall.

The first is a meaningful (though probably not useful) definition for a 
general membership function.  The second is a contradictory description for 
a specific individual.  Using a literal translation from a fuzzy equation 
to an english statement is as inappropriate as a literal translation from, 
say, japanese to english.

Wayne Mack
	
