From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/3257 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: "Marta Bunge" Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: [Fwd: du Sautoy] Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 07:35:27 -0400 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1241019188 7941 80.91.229.2 (29 Apr 2009 15:33:08 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:33:08 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: rrosebru@mta.ca Wed Apr 19 15:07:59 2006 -0300 Return-path: Envelope-to: categories-list@mta.ca Delivery-date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:07:59 -0300 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1FWH3x-000027-6d for categories-list@mta.ca; Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:06:01 -0300 Original-Sender: cat-dist@mta.ca Precedence: bulk X-Keywords: X-UID: 55 Original-Lines: 38 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:3257 Archived-At: Dear Steve, >I think this is exactly the key to the success of Mac Lane's book. >Throughout, he shows how working mathematicians are applying category >theory already without realizing it. One of the basic expositional >problems for teaching CT in computer science is that our students do not >have the body of mathematical experience that Mac Lane presumed. > Of course, by "mathematical experience" one need not assume that it should be the same for everybody. MacLane was thinking of the pure mathematicians only, because that was what motivated him all along. I think that "Conceptual Mathematics" by Lawvere and Schanuel, though seemingly too elementary, is a great introduction to categorical thinking that can be widely appreciated, since the examples chosen therein to illustrate new concepts are simple. I say this in more detail in a review (in Spanish) that can be found in my home page (http://www.math.mcgill.ca/bunge/LS.pdf (.ps)). Even so, you must agree that computer scientists ought to have learnt a certain amount of pure mathematics, or else how are they going to appreciate the more sophisticated developments in their field, or even less contribute to it? I used "Categories and Computer Science" by Bob Walters twice when teaching "Computability and Linguistics" at McGill. Although I have heard some negative comments about it (sorry to mention it, Bob), I liked it a lot. The exercises are often quite demanding, and the exposition clear. I do not know what you think about it. Of course, with a book like that, as with any other, it is up to the instructor to use it to his advantage, and to complement it as needed by the particular audience he has to face. Nice hearing from you, Marta