What I liked about this was the way Kosko's thinking blurs traditional boundaries - its as much a book of applied philosophy as anything. Certainly clarified for me where Western philosophy started to go wrong (with Aristotle and the excluded middle). Also interesting for comparison of western and eastern cultures - why is Fuzzy Logic so much more popular in the east and derided in the west?

Although it presents both basic lessons in fuzzy systems theory and a first-person account of the development of the fuzzy perspective, the book is not particularly well written and incredibly repetitious. All of which conspires to make its frequent over-simplifications unbearable. Analogies are made over and over and each time explicated in unnecessary detail (over and over...) .

People interested in the actual mathematics and with advanced knowledge of logic, set theory, etc would do much better with a real textbook-quality introduction to multivalued or paraconsistent logics. For lay people... I'd almost recommend skipping the topic for now and waiting until another general audience book appears.

On a historical note, the book is a decent reminder of what-went-wrong with 90's corporate futurism. Although less concerned with emerging internet technology than industrial and household applications, the book wears its 90s tech-geek culture badge as clearly as worn back issues of Wired or Mondo 2000. The Future is now immanent through modern "Palmtops" and the like, but it resembles little of the pseudo-Buddhist dreams of Kosko. ( )

This was a good book, but the approach to classical philosophy was over-simplified. This had the effect of negating some of his points. ( )