Fuzzy Logic and the Multicultural Society
Take
Giles FitzPatrick (randomly chosen name).
Is he posh? Yes or no? And Violet Smith (also randomly chosen name). Is she?
Yes or no? Well, actually, having
met both of them, yes AND no.
Well, various logicians
have invented three-valued logics, and a non-logician like myself has invented
five (so there!) But those who believe
in fuzzy logic believe in an infinite number of truth-values, ranging in a
continuum between 0 and 1. Although
there have been perfectly respectable exercises using fuzzy logic in the form
of computer algorithms logicians like the renowned Jan Łukasiewicz (1878-1956)
worked on this idea as far back as the ’twenties.
As an example of such
an algorithm given in Wikipedia for FL:
For example, a simple temperature regulator that uses a
fan might look like this:
IF temperature IS very cold THEN stop fan
IF temperature IS cold THEN turn down fan
IF temperature IS normal THEN maintain level
IF temperature IS hot THEN speed up fan
There is no "ELSE" – all of the rules are
evaluated, because the temperature might be "cold" and
"normal" at the same time to different degrees.
In fact, in order to
make a decision, one has to reduce each test to a yes/no test.
To my mind, truth
corresponds to the facts, and fuzzy truth corresponds to perception of the
facts.
Well, what about the
multicultural society? Do we have
it? Is it a good thing? Er, yes and no.
When David Cameron
tries to say the Multi-cultural Society is not working he may be saying more
than he thinks. There is indeed a
Multi-cultural Society already, which has been here for a long time: the class
system. Is he making it work? Yes or no?
Now if DC is 85% posh, this is captured in fuzzy set theory: he is 85%
part of the ‘posh fuzzy set’ – and indeed 15% part of the non-posh fuzzy
set! And what we find from London up the
east coast, the class divide is sharper than elsewhere in England. And elsewhere in the English-speaking world,
divisions are much more blurred.
So in this respect we
do not want a multi-cultural society, but rather a vari-cultural society,
rather like those vari-focals.
To my mind this also
applies to variations based on ethnic divisions. Let us not fan doubts on the Multi-cultural
Society, and let a vari-cultural society – with continua rather than sharp
boundaries - happen without the heat.
And of course those of us who 51% earn our living be 51% proud of being
working-class.
Martin Prior
The Philosophy Takeaway Issue 49 'Open Topic'
