Linguistic Fuzzy Logic Methods in Social Sciences

ISBN-13: 9783642422379 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 185 str.

Badredine Arfi (University of Florida Un

Opis

The modern origin of fuzzy sets, fuzzy algebra, fuzzy decision making, and "computing with words" is conventionally traced to Lotfi Zadeh's publication in 1965 of his path-breaking refutation of binary set theory. In a sixteen-page article, modestly titled "Fuzzy Sets" and published in the journal Information and Control, Zadeh launched a multi-disciplinary revolution. The start was relatively slow, but momentum gathered quickly. From 1970 to 1979 there were about 500 journal publications with the word fuzzy in the title; from 2000 to 2009 there were more than 35,000. At present, citations to Zadeh's publications are running at a rate of about 1,500-2,000 per year, and this rate continues to rise. Almost all applications of Zadeh's ideas have been in highly technical scientific fields, not in the social sciences. Zadeh was surprised by this development. In a personal note he states: "When I wrote my l965 paper, I expected that fuzzy set theory would be applied primarily in the realm of human sciences. Contrary to my expectation, fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic are applied in the main in physical and engineering sciences." In fact, the first comprehensive examination of fuzzy sets by a social scientist did not appear until 1987, a full twenty-two years after the publication of Zadeh's seminal article, when Michael Smithson, an Australian psychologist, published Fuzzy Set Analysis for Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Spis treści

Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic and Computing with Words.- Elements of Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic and Framework.- Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic Decision-Making Process.- Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic 2x2 Games.- Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic Social Game.- Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic and Causality.- Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic Data Analysis.- Conclusion.

Blurb

The book, titled “Linguistic Fuzzy-Logic Methods in Social Sciences,” is a first in its kind. Linguistic fuzzy logic theory deals with sets or categories whose boundaries are blurry or, in other words, “fuzzy,” and which are expressed in a formalism that uses “words” to compute, not numbers, termed in engineering as “soft computing.” This book presents an accessible introduction to this linguistic fuzzy logic methodology, focusing on its applicability to social sciences. Specifically, this is the first book to propose an approach based on linguistic fuzzy-logic and the method of computing with words to the analysis of decision making processes, strategic interactions, causality, and data analysis in social sciences. The project consists of systematic, theoretical and practical discussions and developments of these new methods as well as their applications to various substantive issues of interest to international relations scholars, political scientists, and social scientists in general.