
270 Chapter Seven—Fuzzy Systems Concepts and Paradigms
History
There are those who would argue that a discussion of the history of fuzzy logic
should start with an examination of the life of Gautama Buddha, born about 563 BC.
Indeed, Buddhism often describes things in shades of gray and embraces what West-
erners would consider contradictions, or paradoxes. Everything exists and interacts
in a continuum (Goddard 1970). The statement “X is not-X” is accepted by most
Buddhists and rejected by almost all Westerners.
By contrast, Western scientific and mathematical thought has been shaped by the
logic of Aristotle, born approximately 200 years after Gautama ...