Conceptual knowledge discovery in databases using formal concept analysis methods

Abstract

In this paper we discuss Conceptual Knowledge Discovery in Databases (CKDD) as it is developing in the field of Conceptual Knowledge Processing (cf. [29],[30]). Conceptual Knowledge Processing is based on the mathematical theory of Formal Concept Analysis which has become a successful theory for data analysis during the last 18 years. This approach relies on the pragmatic philosophy of Ch. S. Peirce [15] who claims that we can only analyze and argue within restricted contexts where we always rely on pre-knowledge and common sense. The development of Formal Concept Analysis led to the software system TOSCANA, which is presented as a CKDD tool in this paper. TOSCANA is a flexible navigation tool that allows dynamic browsing through and zooming into the data. It supports the exploration of large databases by visualizing conceptual aspects inherent to the data. We want to clarify that CKDD can be understood as a human-centered approach of Knowledge Discovery in Databases. The actual discussion about human-centered Knowledge Discovery is therefore briefly summarized in Section 1.