When Professor Rouvray asked me to write a foreword to Fuzzy Logic
in Chemistry, I felt both flattered and challenged: flattered because his
request made me aware of the existence of applications of fuzzy set theory,
or fuzzy logic as it is commonly referred to today, to chemistry~and
challenged because the remoteness of chemistry from my fields of expertise
makes it difficult for me to comment in specific terms on the contributions
assembled in this volume. This is the first volume, as far as I know, to
focus on the applications of fuzzy logic to chemistry.
During the past decade, applications of fuzzy logic have grown rapidly
in number, variety, and visibility. What is the explanation for this phenomenon?
What are the basic concepts in fuzzy logic that underlie its
applications? These are the questions that I will attempt to cast some light
on in this foreword.