The book deals with similarity relations defined on a set with functions. The functions are required to map similar elements to similar ones. The book presents basic mathematical properties of structures consisting of similarity-preserving functions and logics for reasoning about similarities. The presented text is self-contained. The notions and results are demonstrated through examples which are graphically illustrated. The book is useful for researchers, but it can also be used as a graduate text.
From the reviews of the first edition: "This volume is self-contained and is a must for lovers of fuzzy set theory and the beautiful but less known universal algebra. Special attention is paid in this volume to link the authors' approach to other related approaches as well as to bibliographical remarks at the end of each chapter." (E. Kerre, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1083, 2006)