Terminological difficulties in fuzzy set theory -- the case of ``intuitionistic fuzzy sets'' (Q812591)

This discussion paper, authored by a panel of experts in fuzzy sets, brings an issue of terminology of intuitionistic fuzzy sets and its relevance vis-à-vis the concept of intuitionistic logic encountered in the literature. Intuitionistic fuzzy sets, as introduced by Atanassov in 1983, are described by a pair of membership functions \((A+, A-)\) where \(A+(x)\) denotes a degree of membership of \(x\) in \(A\) and \(A-(x)\) is a degree of nonmembership of \(x\) in \(A\). It is also required that \(A\) satisfies the condition \(A+ (x)+ A-(x)\leq 1\). Along with this requirement, basic operations of conjuction, disjunction, and negation are defined. The primary goal of this study is to clarify a clash of terminology given the fact that intuitionistic fuzzy sets have nothing to do with intuitionistic logic yet both of them use the same naming. Some suggestions towards a resolution of this problem are discussed. Furthermore, some similarities between intuitionistic fuzzy sets and interval-valued fuzzy sets are underlined and several practical motivating comments are offered.