Averaging linguistic truth values in fuzzy approximate reasoning

The properties of a new rule for fuzzy conditional inference are presented and discussed. The rule is based on the extended mean operator defined on fuzzy numbers. The related propositions have the form “X is A is τ,” where τ is an element of the term set of the linguistic variable truth. The results obtained via the rule match with Fukami's and with the critical analysis carried out by Mizumoto and Zimmermann about the generalized modus ponens. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.