Membership function

The membership function of a fuzzy set is a generalization of the indicator function in classical sets. In fuzzy logic, it represents the degree of truth as an extension of valuation. Degrees of truth are often confused with probabilities, although they are conceptually distinct, because fuzzy truth represents membership in vaguely defined sets, not likelihood of some event or condition. Membership functions were introduced by Zadeh in the first paper on fuzzy sets (1965).

]Definition
For any set , a membership function on is any function from to the real unit interval [0,1].

Membership functions on fuzzy set

represent fuzzy subsets of For an element

. The membership function which represents a of , the value is called quantifies the grade of is not a member of the

is usually denoted by

the membership degree of membership of the element fuzzy set; the value 1 means that

in the fuzzy set to the fuzzy set

The membership degree The value 0 means that

is fully a member of the fuzzy set. The values between 0 and 1

characterize fuzzy members, which belong to the fuzzy set only partially.

Membership function of a fuzzy set Sometimes,[1] a more general definition is used, where membership functions take values in an arbitrary fixed algebra or structure ; usually it is required that be at least a poset or lattice. The usual membership

functions with values in [0, 1] are then called [0, 1]-valued membership functions.

[edit]Capacity
One application of membership functions is as capacities in decision theory. In decision theory, a capacity is defined as a function, such that is set-wise monotone and is normalized (i.e. from S, the set of subsets of some set, into Clearly this is a ,

generalization of a probability measure, where the probability axiom of countability is weakened. A capacity is used as a subjective measure of the likelihood of an event, and the "expected value" of an outcome given a certain capacity can be found by taking the Choquet integral over the capacity.