Editing Formal concept analysis (section)

{{short description|Method of deriving an ontology}}
{{Expand German|Formale Begriffsanalyse|date=February 2012}}
In [[information science]], '''formal concept analysis''' ('''FCA''') is a [[Principle|principled way]] of deriving a ''concept hierarchy'' or formal [[Ontology (computer science)|ontology]] from a collection of [[Mathematical object|objects]] and their [[Property (philosophy)|properties]]. Each concept in the hierarchy represents the objects sharing some set of properties; and each sub-concept in the hierarchy represents a [[subset]] of the objects (as well as a superset of the properties) in the concepts above it. The term was introduced by [[Rudolf Wille]] in 1981, and builds on the mathematical theory of [[lattice theory|lattices]] and [[order theory|ordered sets]] that was developed by [[Garrett Birkhoff]] and others in the 1930s.

Formal concept analysis finds practical application in fields including [[data mining]], [[text mining]], [[machine learning]], [[knowledge management]], [[semantic web]], [[software development]], [[chemistry]] and [[biology]].