‎A “Journey” from Traditional to Fuzzy Methods of Decision-Making

‎Decision-making (DM) is one of the most important components of human cognition‎. ‎Starting with a review of the traditional criteria for DM‎, ‎this work presents also a method for the verification of a decision‎, ‎a step of the DM process which‎, ‎due to its special interest‎, ‎is usually examined separately from its other steps‎. ‎Frequently in everyday life‎, ‎however‎, ‎the data of a DM problem are vague and characterized by uncertainty‎. ‎In such cases the traditional techniques for DM‎, ‎which are based on principles of the bivalent logic (yes-no)‎, ‎cannot help effectively in making the right decision‎. ‎The first who introduced principles of the fuzzy sets theory in DM were Bellman and Zadeh in 1970 and an example is given here illustrating their fuzzy criterion for DM‎. ‎Also‎, ‎among the several fuzzy methods proposed later by other researchers for a more effective DM‎, ‎a hybrid method is developed here for parametric multiple-criteria DM using soft sets and grey numbers (or intuitionistic fuzzy sets‎, ‎or neutrosophic sets) as tools‎, ‎which improves an earlier method proposed by Maji et al‎. ‎in 2002‎. ‎All the DM approaches presented in this paper are illustrated with everyday practical examples‎.