Decision Making / 1 / 1.4 / 1.4.2

1.4.2 Personal Constructs Involving Fuzzy Logic

Unlike digital computers that are programmed to operate using classical logic, human thought and, hence, our personal constructs (Kelly, 1955) are built around ‘fuzzy logic’. Pinker (1997) explains fuzzy logic as follows:

In many domains people do not have all-or-none convictions about whether something is true [or false] (Pinker, 1997: 101).

Life, and how we view it, is not black and white. We do not all agree, even when we see the same thing. As Kosko (1993) points out, one person sees a glass of water as half full, another sees it as half empty. He goes on to ask, whether after a further sip is taken, is this same glass still half full? To accommodate this we need to think in terms of fuzzy logic. Cognitive and concept maps throughout this book are constructed in a way that exploits this type of logic, that is, the logic of debate, dialogue and discourse about real world problems. Kosko (1993) and Taber (1991) refer to these maps as fuzzy concept maps.