Conceptualisation of Communication in Computation: A Case Study in Formal Concept Analysis

Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is by no means the only computational theory for conceptualisation but it is worth studying because it is has a proven track record in the social sciences and is grounded in mathematics and philosophy. In FCA the underlying unit of thought is the formal concept but how are concepts formed and why?

Formal concept analysis provides a way of structuring an information space based on the features of the data being analysed. It serves as a means for communication, exploration and discussion which complies both with Habermas's theory of communicative action and Peirce's pragmatism. Importantly, FCA has a rigorous mathematical theory, based on lattice and order theory and universal algebra. It is human-centred, supports the notion of inter-subjective human argumentation, and has visual expression as an information space via the concept lattice. It is also computationally tractable.

My talk investigates how the theory of Formal Concept Analysis could be considered a prototypical computational theory of conceptualisation. I underline its utility to knowledge processing using practical examples that have been developed in the last 20 years.