From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/3211 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: wlawvere@buffalo.edu Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: WHY ...CONCERNED? III Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2006 18:40:28 -0500 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1241019159 7715 80.91.229.2 (29 Apr 2009 15:32:39 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:32:39 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: rrosebru@mta.ca Sun Apr 2 20:44:38 2006 -0300 Return-path: Envelope-to: categories-list@mta.ca Delivery-date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 20:44:38 -0300 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.52) id 1FQC5Z-0003LS-If for categories-list@mta.ca; Sun, 02 Apr 2006 20:34:33 -0300 Content-Disposition: inline Original-Sender: cat-dist@mta.ca Precedence: bulk X-Keywords: X-UID: 7 Original-Lines: 31 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:3211 Archived-At: Jim, Perhaps complacency is another form of preoccupation. Very often topologists or geometers who want a functor category say things like "this may not exist". Of course that is slightly better than use of quotients or limits in analysis without asking whether they exist, but in the 21st century such waffling is unbecoming to mathematics, especially when, as I suggest, it can be replaced by crisp algebra. Bill --On Saturday, April 1, 2006 10:01 AM -0500 jim stasheff wrote: > Who is so preoccupied? > Folks I know usually use category theory without worring about size > jim > > F W Lawvere wrote: >> WHY ARE WE CONCERNED? III >> >> The second main misconception about category theory >> >> Part of the perception that category theory is "foundations" (in the >> pejorative sense of being remote from applications and development) is >> due to a preoccupation with huge size. Since such perceptions hold back >> the learning of category theory, and hence facilitate its misuse as a >> mystifying shield, they are among our concerns. We need to deal with the >> size preoccupation head on. [balance of quotation omitted...]