The 40th Anniversary of Fuzzy Sets: A New View on System Theory
Rudolf Seising · 2005
The year 2005 is the 40th year of fuzzy sets and fuzzy systems. This first contribution to the special session 1965-2005: 40 Years of Fuzzy Sets; 1965-2005 at the NAFIPS-05 Annual Conference Soft Computing for Real World Applications concerns the history of the theory of fuzzy sets and systems. It is a review on the first half of the 1950s and 1960s - the times when Lotfi Zadeh began his scientific career, when he published his thoughts and concepts about "Thinking Machines, "System Theory", and ultimately "Fuzzy Sets and Systems". The core statement of this paper is an interpretation of the history of the theory of fuzzy sets and systems as a part of the history of system theory.