Concepts and Fuzzy Logic

Kybernetes

ISSN: 0368-492X

Article publication date: 27 April 2012

412

Citation

(2012), "Concepts and Fuzzy Logic", Kybernetes, Vol. 41 No. 3/4. https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2012.06741caa.011

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Concepts and Fuzzy Logic

Article Type: Book reviews and reports From: Kybernetes, Volume 41, Issue 3/4

Edited by Radim Belohlavek and George J. Klir,The MIT Press,Cambridge, MA,2011,$35.00 or £24.95 (cloth),240 pp. (7 figures, 6 tables),ISBN-10: 0-262-01647-8; ISBN-13: 978-0-262-01647-6

The abstract in the flyer reads as follows:

The classical view of concepts in psychology was challenged in the 1970s when experimental evidence showed that concept categories are graded and thus cannot be represented adequately by classical sets. The possibility of using fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic for representing and dealing with concepts was recognized initially but then virtually abandoned in the early 1980s. In this volume, leading researchers – both psychologists working on concepts and mathematicians working on fuzzy logic – reassess the usefulness of fuzzy logic for the psychology of concepts.

The book begins with two tutorials – one on concepts and the other on fuzzy logic – aimed at making relevant experimental and theoretical issues accessible to researchers in both fields. The contributors then discuss the experiments that led to the rejection of the classical view of concepts; analyze the various arguments against the use of fuzzy logic in the psychology of concepts and show that they are fallacious; review methods based on sound measurement principles for constructing fuzzy sets; introduce formal concept analysis and its capabilities when generalized by using fuzzy logic; consider conceptual combinations; examine lexical concepts; and propose a research program based on cooperation between researchers in the psychology of concepts and fuzzy logic.

A review of the book will appear in a later issue.

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