Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing and superficial look at fuzzy logic
Review: This book is a big disappointment and anyone with any relatively-high level of understanding in physics and math will find the lack of rigour and the authors "obvious" statements frustrating.
For non-mathematicians the book is too long and too technical.Kosko fails on many levels in trying to explain the nature of fuzzy logic. For example he seems to ignore the relation between matrices and tensors with fuzzy logic as well as comparing the bivalent world as discreet and the fuzzy world as continuous which seems far more obvious than his interpretations and explanations. Fuzzy thinking is not a mathematical revelation, but it is simply an extension of group theory and probability theory and Kosko seems to ignore this point too. The one good thing about this book is that it does give an insight (albeit small) into industry's use of fuzzy logic in the development of artificial intelligence. For non-mathematicians this books fails as it is slightly too technical. For mathematicians this book lacks rigour and sufficient explanation of the various theories. Even for those aware of the philosophies and teachings of Aristotle and Buddha his comparison of the two and how this pertains to fuzzy logic is unconvincing. All in all the book leaves the reader unfulfilled and is not a good advertisement for fuzzy logic.
Rating:
Summary: A disappointing and superficial look at fuzzy logic
Review: This book is a big disappointment and anyone with any relatively-high level of understanding in physics and math will find the lack of rigour and the authors "obvious" statements frustrating.
For non-mathematicians the book is too long and too technical. Kosko fails on many levels in trying to explain the nature of fuzzy logic. For example he seems to ignore the relation between matrices and tensors with fuzzy logic as well as comparing the bivalent world as discreet and the fuzzy world as continuous which seems far more obvious than his interpretations and explanations. Fuzzy thinking is not a mathematical revelation, but it is simply an extension of group theory and probability theory and Kosko seems to ignore this point too. The one good thing about this book is that it does give an insight (albeit small) into industry's use of fuzzy logic in the development of artificial intelligence. For non-mathematicians this books fails as it is slightly too technical. For mathematicians this book lacks rigour and sufficient explanation of the various theories. Even for those aware of the philosophies and teachings of Aristotle and Buddha his comparison of the two and how this pertains to fuzzy logic is unconvincing. All in all the book leaves the reader unfulfilled and is not a good advertisement for fuzzy logic.
Rating:
Summary: Incoherently written, badly edited. A disappointment.
Review: This book is a disappointment. Bart Kosko is an expert at Fuzzy Engineering, and when he writes about it, he has a lot to teach. Unfortunately, very little of this book is actually on that topic (Section 3, chapters 8-11). The rest of the book is a rambling account of ideas that fuzzy logic supposedly replaces, interspersed with bitter anecdotes about academic politics. A low point in the book is chapter 5, entitled "Aristotle vs. the Buddha". In this chapter Kosko puts Aristotle forward as a champion of bivalent logic (which he was), and the Buddha as a champion of fuzzy logic (a dubious claim). He then proceeds to pan Aristotle not for flaws in his logic, but for flaws in his personality (including political incorrectness!). Similarly, he praises the Buddha for his personality, not for any contribution he made to logic. As near as I could tell, this chapter was completely irrelevant, and I feel that the editor was negligent is his duties for having allowed this chapter into the book at all. Unfortunately, it's only one of many weaknesses in Kosko's writing that were not corrected in the editing. If you're looking for a book on fuzzy logic, I can't recommend this one. It spends too little time talking about what fuzzy logic is and what it's known to be good for, and too much time giving simplistic and unconvincing arguments about what bivalent logic and probability theory are supposedly no good for, or in wild speculation about what fuzzy logic might one day be good for. The book isn't a total loss, but the useful parts are too few and far between to make this book worth sifting through.
Rating: 
Summary: Very philosophical but gutsy
Review: This book is biased against science and probability. Fuzzy logic is a very old idea. The author doesn't seem to realize, you can't use formal logic (binary or fuzzy) to analyze the world. Anyone who uses symbolic logic to analyze the world is either a philosopher or an idiot. During the development of quantum mechanics, Von Neumann came up with a "quantum logic" but Bohr rejected it because he saw no formal use for it. This book seems to make Fuzzy Logic appear like a quantum revolution that will catapult us into the 21st century and beyond. The author is absolutely right that computers are dumb and fuzzy logic and neural networks can improve that. The descriptions of fuzzy systems are clean and beautiful but you have to get through several chapters of recycled philosophy. The author contradicts himself several times but since he believes in fuzzy logic, I guess he feels there's no paradox or hypocrisy. It did take guts to write this book (check out ! how huge the author's bibliography is).
Rating:
Summary: Incoherent
Review: This book is written in a "stream of consciousness" style and that makes things incoherent. The book was disappointing. There was only about 2 chapters talking about the technology behind fuzzy logic. This book doesn't explain much.
Rating: 
Summary: Very clear and simple
Review: This book won't win any medals as a textbook, but Bart Kosko clearly did not intend for it to do so. He writes clearly, presenting the basic idea and "philosophy" of fuzzy logic in laymans terms with just enough math to get the average person interested without feeling overwhelmed. An excellect introduction to burying Aristotlian logic and thinking closer to the world experience. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the beef?!
Review: This is a rather useless book. It is an ego trip lacking in really useful information. It is amazing how much prattle there is about fuzzy logic without good examples or detailed discussion. The philosophy is superficial and misleading. The idea that western scientists have been stuck in a binary mode of thinking unaware of the subtle ying-yang Eastern view, is a cliche that is false. Western scientists have been amongst the first to appreciate Eastern philosophy and have experimented with various forms of multivalued logics and generalizations of probability for a long time. If you want Eastern philosphy go elsewhere. And I am not interested that the author was sitting in a hot tub when he had some brilliant idea. This is one of the most overrated books in a long time. Let me tell you something more, when these fuzzy logic gurus explain the shortcomings of probability theory to solve the same problems, they usually use a particular interpretation of probability. However, whereas there is general agreement about the mathematical syntax of probability, there are many interpretations about what probability means. Fuzzy logic is one of the most overhyped theories of the last century. The claims of its power and greater ease of use, do not stand up to scrutiny.
Rating:
Summary: Fuzzy Thinking- A complete waste of time!!
Review: This is one of the worst books I have ever read! Reading this book was, at best, a complete waste of my time, and at worst, a very frustrating and painful experience.
This book is poorly written. The sentence structure is awkward. The author tends to jump back and forth between explanations that are too simple for a third grader and mathematical arguments that require an understanding of graduate level mathematics.
The authors incessant need to interject personal information (how often he lifts weights, how long he rides his exercise bike, the fact that he sleeps on a water bed) is childish, annoying, and contributes nothing to the intellectual content of the book.
The authors assumptions and assertions about modern, western science and the scientific or "western" worldview are always inadequate and sometimes totally incorrect. If this book is an example of what fuzzy logic has to offer, I predict that fuzzy logic will vanish without a trace within the next few years. I can only hope that Bart Kosko vanishes with it.
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!! It is a waste of paper.
Rating:
Summary: Fuzzy Thinking- A complete waste of time!!
Review: This is one of the worst books I have ever read! Reading this book was, at best, a complete waste of my time, and at worst, a very frustrating and painful experience.
This book is poorly written. The sentence structure is awkward. The author tends to jump back and forth between explanations that are too simple for a third grader and mathematical arguments that require an understanding of graduate level mathematics.
The authors incessant need to interject personal information (how often he lifts weights, how long he rides his exercise bike, the fact that he sleeps on a water bed) is childish, annoying, and contributes nothing to the intellectual content of the book.
The authors assumptions and assertions about modern, western science and the scientific or "western" worldview are always inadequate and sometimes totally incorrect. If this book is an example of what fuzzy logic has to offer, I predict that fuzzy logic will vanish without a trace within the next few years. I can only hope that Bart Kosko vanishes with it.
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!! It is a waste of paper.
Rating:
Summary: Absurd
Review: This isn't a book, it's an ego trip. I slogged through about half of it before finally realizing that he probably wasn't going to say anything comprehensible at any point. Save your money!
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