Foundations of fuzzy sets (Q2277254)

A systematic overview of the origins of fuzzy set theory and the principal problems of the foundations of fuzzy sets is given. In the first section, the authors briefly recall the roots of fuzzy sets, concerning especially Poincaré's paradoxes and the imprecision in decision theory. A discussion of practical, logical, esthetical and some other aspects of the foundations of fuzzy sets is the object of Section 2, as well as the very important and confuse controverses of different schools. Different approaches to the foundations are discussed (Section 3, including some preliminaries), and set-theoretic approaches are sketched (Section 4). A large part of this thick paper is devoted to the category- theoretic approaches (Section 5). The Higgs topos (5.1), the weak topos of M-valued sets (5.2), and the Goguen category Set(L) of L-sets (5.3 and 5.4) are explained and compared. Some very superficial notes on implications for mathematical structures based on fuzzy sets (6.1, numbers in Set(L), and 6.2, fuzzy topologies) end the paper. The list of references is long (70 titles) and well chosen but not exhaustive.