Fuzzy logic
A "fuzzy set" is a category or a class which is not - as in traditional classification - defined by attributing all elements identical properties. In Fuzzy set theory precise defined criteria for class inclusion are substituted with criteria without precise definitions and overlapping classes.
The opposite of a
fuzzy set is termed "an ordinary set".
In fuzzy-set theory it is not the case whether or not an element is a member of a
class but to which degree this is the case.
Fuzzy string matching may identify words with similar spelling. A fuzzy search operator can be helpful in finding word variants or misspellings in a database, for example, the result of typographical mistakes or errors during OCR (optical character recognition) processing.
Literature:
Bookstein, A. (1986). Probability and fuzzy-set application
to information retrieval. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 29, 117-151.
Hajek, P. (2002). Fuzzy logic. The Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2002 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Fuzzy logic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_logic
See also: Logic
Birger Hjørland
Last edited: 26-04-2006