CONCEPT LATTICES AND CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS

Concept Lattice is the central notion of "Formal Concept Analysis," a new area of research which is based on a set-theoretical model for concepts and conceptual hierarchies. This model yields not only a new approach to data analysis but also methods for formal representation of conceptual knowledge. These methods are outlined on three levels. First, basics on concept lattices are explained starting from simple data contexts which consist of a binary relation between objects and attributes indicating which object has which attribute. On the second level, conceptual relationships are discussed for data matrices which assign attribute values to each of the given objects. Finally, a mathematical model for conceptual knowledge systems is described. This model allows us to study mathematically the representation, inference, acquisition, and communication of conceptual knowledge.