From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/3177 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Alex Simpson Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: cracks and pots Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 13:57:05 +0100 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=UTF-8; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1241019138 7578 80.91.229.2 (29 Apr 2009 15:32:18 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:32:18 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: rrosebru@mta.ca Wed Mar 29 23:30:16 2006 -0400 Return-path: Envelope-to: categories-list@mta.ca Delivery-date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 23:30:16 -0400 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.52) id 1FOniL-00077T-4t for categories-list@mta.ca; Wed, 29 Mar 2006 23:20:49 -0400 In-Reply-To: Content-Disposition: inline Original-Sender: cat-dist@mta.ca Precedence: bulk X-Keywords: X-UID: 123 Original-Lines: 29 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:3177 Archived-At: Quoting dusko : > but at the end of the day, i think, we'll all agree that the source > of the unreasonable effectiveness of categorical algebra is its > foundational content (although there is probably a lot of it that we > dont understand yet); and the other way around. eg, if you look at > grothendieck's work, he started working in algebra, and ended up > developing foundational structures, because he needed them. and a lot > on the "algebra" side now is built upon them. ok, then for a while > it was thought that he exaggerated with foundations, and that a more > direct approach "could have been in better taste" (to cite > eilenberg). but maby the fermat theorem would have a more useful > proof if it was developed in grothendieck style. and nowadays, there > is a lot of foundational content in tannaka duality etc, in TQFT in > general ... TQFT!? It seems dusko has finally discovered the shift key on his keyboard. Alex -- Alex Simpson, LFCS, School of Informatics, Univ. of Edinburgh, UK Email: Alex.Simpson@ed.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5113 Web: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/als Fax: +44 (0)131 667 7209