Formal Contexts, Formal Concept Analysis, and Galois Connections

Abstract

Formal concept analysis (FCA) is built on a special type of Galois connections called polarities. We present new results in formal concept analysis and in Galois connections by presenting new Galois connection results and then applying these to formal concept analysis. We also approach FCA from the perspective of collections of formal contexts. Usually, when doing FCA, a formal context is fixed. We are interested in comparing formal contexts and asking what criteria should be used when determining when one formal context is better than another formal context. Interestingly, we address this issue by studying sets of polarities.