Order-theoretic foundations

Formal Concept Analysis is based on mathematical order theory, in particular on the theory of complete lattices. The reader is not required to be familiar with these areas. The mathematical foundations are surveyed in this chapter. However, there was no room for a comprehensive introduction to order theory. For this, we refer to the textbooks listed at the end of this chapter. In general, the reader is supposed to have experience with mathematical texts: we use the technical language of mathematics, in particular of set theory, without further explanation.