Reflections on Technology and Human Sciences: rediscovering a common thread through the analysis of a few epistemological features of fuzziness

Abstract

A number of reasons, both historical and philosophical, has caused Technology and Human Sciences to be perceived as disjoint domains. In opposi- tion, we claim that there exists a strong methodological affinity between these apparently disconnected fields of knowledge. Our view is further corroborated by new hints from Information Sciences, in which new scientific concepts and tools such as fuzziness have emerged. Comparing the ways in which both Technology and Literature offer a model of reality we shall see that their approaches preserve a strong connection with the “description” of the pieces of reality they aim to model, against the Galileian hard sciences’ approach of making bold hypotheses, not necessarily linked to the surface description of reality. Moreover, we will dis- cuss the surprising fact that a fruitful use of fuzzy logic in both Technology and Human Sciences presents strong (methodological) similarities, and is markedly different – in nature – from its possible embodiment in Hard Sciences.