From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5382 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: KCHM Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: A well kept secret? Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 10:48:50 +0000 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: KCHM NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1261172834 12312 80.91.229.12 (18 Dec 2009 21:47:14 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:47:14 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Fri Dec 18 22:47:06 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from [138.73.1.1] (helo=mailserv.mta.ca) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NLkfB-0008Db-7z for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:47:05 +0100 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1NLkBa-0006w2-Sj for categories-list@mta.ca; Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:16:30 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5382 Archived-At: On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 03:30:30PM -0800, peasthope@shaw.ca wrote: > ... but how prevalent is the > subject in undergraduate programs? For the record, there was a course in category theory for undergraduates at Monash University (Melbourne) in the early 1970s. This was in the third year of what, for people interested in mathematics, was usually a four-year degree. It was taught by G B Preston, as in `algebraic theory of semigroups' using MacLane and Birkhoff (1967, not Birkhoff and MacLane). It partly took the line that category theory unified the basic algebraic and topological constructions and partly that it was a subject to study in its own right. Students then were simultaneously being taught the general Tichonoff theorem using ultrafilters, smooth manifolds and multilinear algebra (more universal constructions, as in Greub), and Hilbert space theory. This provided a strong context for category theory. Heady days. Kirill -- ===================================== http://kchmackenzie.staff.shef.ac.uk/ ===================================== [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]