Social Fuzziology: Study of Fuzziness of Social Complexity

204 Pages·2002·4.739 MB·English

by  Dr. Vladimir Dimitrov, Prof. Bob Hodge (auth.)

Social Fuzziology
Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing
Editor-in-chief
Prof. Janusz Kacprzyk
Systems Research Institute
Polish Academy of Sciences
ul. Newelska 6
01-447 Warsaw, Poland
E-mail: [email protected]
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Vladimir Dimitrov
Bob Hodge
Social Fuzziology
Study of Fuzziness
of Social Complexity
Physica-Verlag
ASpringer- Verlag Company
Or. Vladimir Oimitrov
Prof. Bob Hodge
University of Western Sydney
Locked Bag 1797
oe
South Penrith
NSW 1797
Australia
ISSN 1434-9922
ISBN 978-3-662-00309-1 ISBN 978-3-7908-1778-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-7908-1778-2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Dimitrov, Vladimir: Social fuzziology: study of fuzziness of social complexity / Vladimir Dimitrov; Bob
Hodge . - Heidelberg; New York: Physica-Verl.. 2002
(Studies in fuzziness and soft computing; Vol. 107)
ISBN 978-3-662-00309-1
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Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002
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To our mothers
Prologue
In 1970 I started my journey into the social field of application of fuzzy sets with
the design of a heuristic model for decision-making (Dimitrov, 1970); I then
worked on developing fuzzy questionnaires for studying public opinion (Barnev,
Dimitrov and Stanchev, 1974). My research interest was focused in the
management of human systems (Dimitrov and Wechler, 1975) and their modelling
(Dimitrov, 1977), exploration of the group choice problem and social self
organisation (Dimitrov, 1976a), application of fuzzy sets to economics (Dimitrov
and Angelkov, 1976), medical diagnostics (Dimitrov, Stanchev and Driankov,
1976), water pollution control (Dimitrov, Driankov, Petrov, 1977), etc. This
inspiring stage of research ended with the development of non-formal theory of
fuzzy management with applications (Dimitrov, 1976) -a work for which in 1979
the expert council on mathematical cybernetics of the Academy of Sciences of the
former Soviet Union conferred on me the degree "doctor of science". Resulting
from this work was the realisation that the fuzzy management of human systems,
that is, management which tolerates imprecisely formulated instructions, is more
efficient than any rigid deterministic control. The famous social choice paradox of
Arrow (Arrow, 1963) 'melts' when the individual preferences are expressed
fuzzily. In this case, the fuzziness converges into two fuzzy values: one centred in
the fuzzy set of alternatives considered as significant by the individuals and the
other centred in the fuzzy set of insignificant alternatives. This type of
convergence helps avoid the undesirable emergence of triads with 'vicious'
preferences (such as: a preferred to b preferred to c, and then c preferred to a), as it
transforms the initial multi-alternative choice into a choice between two fuzzy
values, which cannot be entrapped in vicious triads.
Quite possibly, the concept of fuzzy management was unacceptable for the
totalitarian regime at that time, so my degree was rejected by the Highest
Certifying Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. This decision
was re-considered when Gorbachev started his perestroika and the DSc degree
conferred on me by the Academy of Sciences in Moscow was officially re
confirmed in 1987. So, it took 8 years for the Soviet officials to accept the
'dangerous' results of the application of fuzzy sets to social reality. I had no
problems publishing in the Western journals and proceedings of international
congresses and conferences: Dimitrov, 1977a; Dimitrov and Kunchev, 1977b;
Dimitrov and Driankova, 1977; Dimitrov and Driankov, 1977; Dimitrov, 1983;
Dimitrov, 1989. My meetings with Prof. Zadeh - the founder of fuzzy sets - in
VIII
At the end of 1999, as an academic in the University of Western Sydney,
Australia, I was ready to describe the main ideas of fuzziology as a study of the
sources, nature and dynamics of the fuzziness of the human knowing,
understanding, and experiencing ofreality.
Fuzziology expands the exploratory field of social reality beyond the reach of the
fuzzy logic. While fuzzy logic agrees that both A and non-A (where A can be an
issue of concern, alternative, control value, etc.) are considered simultaneously
true up to some degrees, the endeavour of fuzziology is to transcend (go beyond)
the duality of both fuzziness and non-fuzziness in people's understanding. This
endeavour reflects the ancient Vedic maxim: "Do not reject anything! But do not
remain with anything either! Go beyond!"
By postulating that the self-referential processes of our understanding and
knowing grow from within us and have the potential to transcend any limits and
obstacles, the 'transcendent' logic of fuzziology serves as a powerful mind
energiser - stimulator of our creativity and catalyst for seeking mutual
understanding and social harrnony. What appears fuzzy or non-fuzzy in the context
of some social issues, which we consider as important at a certain level of
development of our understanding, dissolves or disappears when our
consciousness expands. By moving beyond the current level of understanding and
knowing, we open a new space of social possibilities, and thus 'transcend' both the
fuzziness and non-fuzziness existing at the previous level.
The interesting and useful discussions on fuzziology, which I have with my
colleague and friend -professor Bob Hodge (at the College of Arts, Education and
Social Sciences of the University of Western Sydney), helped us to initiate a new
fertile zone of inquiry which we named social juzziology. So, here is our first joint
book. Iwanted the text of our first book not to be so long; in the ever-growing
busyness of our every day lives we simply do not have much time for reading
books with many pages, have we? A lot of ideas that I shared with Bob are not
included in the book (you can have a look at our horne page at
http://www.uws.edu.au/vip/dimitrov/). If the reader - social researcher, engineer,
philosopher, academic, student, explorer of the perennial wisdom and Vedic
spirituality or anyone who likes to deal with ideas that challenge and irritate -finds
this book interesting (and share this with us) we can soon be ready with our next
book.
Vlad Dimitrov
May 2002 University ofWestern Sydney
Foreword
Fuzziology studies the fuzziness inherent in what we know about ourselves, the
sources and nature of our experience, our thoughts and feelings, drives for
understanding and urges to create and realise our potential. This kind of fuzziness
is at the core of our existence, at the essence of our humanness. It affects any field
of human activity, be it mathematical study of fuzzy equations and fuzzy
integrals; engineering design and implementation of fuzzy logic-based
methodologies; fuzzy control systems or fuzzy robots.
Social fuzziology investigates the role of fuzziness in understanding the dynamic
complexity of human existence in the social world. It is a study of the nexus
between the complex demands of life - individual and social -and the fuzziness of
thinking.
Since human evolution over 2 billion years has seen the co-evolution of social
complexity with human language and thought, it is likely that the fuzziness of
language and thought is especially intimately formed by the demands of social
complexity, just as social complexity is sustained by the inherent fuzziness of
language and thought.
Social fuzziology is not simply one field of application of fuzziology. Given the
initial state of the development of fuzziology, social fuzziology needs to develop
hand in hand with fuzziology, each helping to advance the other.
The scope of the book is reflected in the background of the authors, one from
science and mathematics, the other from semiotics and social sciences. This also
determines how we have written, and the audience we hope to reach. That
audience, we hope, will include two groups who normally never read the same
books, who live in two different 'cultures', science and humanities, which have
grown too far apart and need to be reintegrated. We have tried to make the text
equally accessible to both kinds of reader. We hope each will tolerate kinds of
arguing that may seem unfamiliar from their disciplinary perspective, or
explanations of matters too weIl known (to experts in the field) to need saying.
There are many positive benefits to both sides for such efforts. As such notable
scientists as Einstein and Linus Pauling amongst many others have proclaimed,
scientists and engineers have so much impact on society they cannot afford to be
ignorant or indifferent about the great issues of their day. Conversely, the social
x
sciences today are mostly based on a particular understanding of science which
lacks insights of social fuzziology. They need the kind of renewal social
fuzziology could offer, if they are to develop better tools for understanding the
escalating complexities of contemporary society.
Social fuzziology is so new it has only just acquired a name, yet fuzziness is too
important and pervasive for it never to have been noticed or reflected on by any
earlier thinkers or traditions. Indeed, we believe that the opposite is the case.
Ancient traditions of wisdom often incorporate a profound recognition of the
nature and role of fuzziness, under other terms or in other systems of thought.
Many modern thinkers have also reflected in interesting and valid ways on
fuzziness. To those who would demand that we define fuzziology or social
fuzziology in exclusive terms, distinct from each other or from other fields of
thought, we say: such adefinition would contradict a fundamental principle of
fuzziology itself.
In the book we explore many issues of fuzziology and social fuzziology. Here we
put forward the following propositions:
1. What we experience, learn and know can be considered as a mapping of the
all-pervading matter of the universe onto the 'transcendental' space of human
ideas.
The uni verse is a material expression of all-pervading dynamics. The interplay of
energies, forces, forms, substances produces self-organizing drives of various
kinds and magnitudes. They are responsible for the organization of matter into
material reality, which we try to perceive and study through our senses
coordinated by our mind, while using instruments wh ich aim to magnify the
ability of our senses.
The inner space of our thoughts, emotions, feelings, beliefs, aspirations, dreams,
etc. is a product of the same universal dynamics, and preserves its essentially
dynamical character. Thoughts and emotions are in constant movement - they
emerge, interact, disappear, and emerge again. They penetrate into one another,
weave into complex concepts and feelings, habits and stories. Their 'boundaries'
are not only fluid and permeable, they expand, shrink, combine, 'fractalise',
'bifurcate', etc. In this sense we consider them fuzzy emanations of our inner
space. Since the whole process of human knowing is based on these emanations,
our knowledge is inherently fuzzy.
XI
2. We human beings are the main source oJ the juzziness (uncertainty, vagueness,
ambiguity, indeterminacy, unclearness, indistinctness, obscurity) that permeates
our experience and being, our understanding and knowing, our 'languaging' and
acting.
Being a product of the self-organizing and evolving dynamics of nature, and at the
same time, a factor in their changes, it is difficult for us to grasp what is the
engine of these dynamies, where it is located and how it works. We try to answer
these questions by studying the world that surrounds us, and while doing so we
separate ourselves from the world. The mind, which seeks to understand the
world, remains here, centred in our brains and senses, while the world we observe
and study spreads over there, in the uni verse.
We think that the world evolves in a way different from how we evolve, having
its own engine different from the engine supporting our lives. Following this
logic, our mi nd (constantly involved in analysing, classifying and separating)
takes the next step: it supposes that the source of all difficulties which emerge on
the way to understand the world are in the world alone, in its variety, complexity
and vastness. What arelief is this for the individual mind! Instead of trying to
understand itself, to see what impedes its capacity to concentrate, create and
evolve, the individual thinker hurries to blame the external world and its
unsurpassable problems, forgetting that it is the thinker who has created and
continue to create the most severe problems in the world.
3. There is no Juzziness located outside human nature, in a world separated Jrom
uso Such a separated-Jrom-us world does not exist. We and the world are Jorever
connected through the umbilical cord oJ the all-pervading common dynamics -
energies, Jorces, substances and Jorms. They have created us in the process oJ
their interactions. They support our existence and vitally affect our lives, but we
also contribute in the ways they manifest through our evolving nature.
Nature does not select a special kind of dynamics to support our existence, and
another kind to support the existence of the rest of the world. The living cells of
our finite bodies and the constellations of our infinite uni verse share one and the
same energy field - a field that sustains the life and evolution of the animated
nature and stimulates changes and transformations of inanimate forms. The ways
we experience and live in this field, the ways we interpret and explain its
numberless manifestations, the ways we make sense of these manifestations,
appear Juzzy to our minds.