Here’s an introduction to Relation Theory geared to applications and taking a moderately general view at least as far as finite numbers of relational domains are concerned (-adic or -ary relations).

Relation Theory

This article treats relations from the perspective of combinatorics, in other words, as a subject matter in discrete mathematics, with special attention to finite structures and concrete set-theoretic constructions, many of which arise quite naturally in applications.  This approach to relation theory, or the theory of relations, is distinguished from, though closely related to, its study from the perspectives of abstract algebra on the one hand and formal logic on the other.

Resources

• Sign Relations
• Triadic Relations
• Survey of Relation Theory
• Peirce’s 1870 Logic Of Relatives

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cc: FB | Relation Theory • Laws of Form • Peirce List