Fuzzy sets seemed to work

Abstract

Perhaps it is appropriate-given the nature of the subject matter-that it is difficult for me to date my first encounter with fuzzy sets in any degree of certainty. Some bounds for the time frame can, however, be given. I presented my doctoral thesis in 1974 and, while systems theory played a role in it, fuzzy sets were not dealt with [6]. My next book-length work was published in 1977 by Societas Scientiarum Fennica [8]. It was a collection of essays and one of them unmistakably refers to fuzzy sets: "On Fuzzy Games". On closer inspection it turns out that in a paper published in 1975 I already dealt with fuzzy sets, albeit in a very cursory manner ([7], p. 242-243) The paper was published in proceedings of the Second European Meeting on Cybernetics and Systems Research held in 1974 in Vienna. The series of meetings was held immediately after Easter on even-numbered years starting 1972. This puts my first exposure to fuzzy sets to the spring of 1974. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.