From: "Eduardo J. Dubuc" <edubuc@dm.uba.ar>
To: Dusko Pavlovic <dusko@kestrel.edu>
Cc: Michael Barr <barr@math.mcgill.ca>,Categories list <categories@mta.ca>
Subject: Re: The humility topos
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:03:47 -0300 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <E1OVRii-00072h-CY@mailserv.mta.ca> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <E1OUUP8-0004pB-Ie@mailserv.mta.ca>
Grothendieck introduced the term "topos" simply out of "topology" and
"topological space".
we should wonder who and why introduced "topology" and "topological space".
Dusko Pavlovic wrote:
> It might be fair to remember that "Topoi" is the title of 6th book or
> Aristotle's Organon. "On Categories" is the title of the 1st book of
> Organon.
>
> Both concepts were very actively used by scolastic philosophers. Maybe
> we are their heirs of some sort ;)
>
> It would be interesting to know about the motivations of people who introduced these terms into mathematics. I think that MacLane said at one point that there was a terminological link through Rudolf Carnap, thus through neokantians. The notion of categories plays a prominent role in Kant's first Critique. But it is even more interesting if the term topos was introduced with an intentional reference to *dialectics*, which is what that part of Organon is about.
>
> -- dusko
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2010-07-02 15:03 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2010-06-28 19:49 Michael Barr
2010-06-30 19:15 ` Dusko Pavlovic
2010-07-02 8:02 ` Steve Vickers
2010-07-02 15:03 ` Eduardo J. Dubuc [this message]
2010-07-05 20:20 ` Vaughan Pratt
2010-07-06 11:47 ` Colin McLarty
2010-07-06 12:26 ` Jamie Vicary
2010-07-06 12:29 ` Graham White
2010-07-07 14:16 ` Colin McLarty
[not found] ` <4C2DFFD3.8050406@dm.uba.ar>
2010-07-02 15:41 ` Michael Barr
2010-07-04 23:44 ` Jean-Pierre Marquis
2010-07-04 17:31 ` Colin McLarty
2010-06-29 2:06 Toby Bartels
2010-06-29 4:33 John Baez
2010-06-29 17:20 Robert J. MacG. Dawson
2010-06-30 14:05 ` Prof. Peter Johnstone
[not found] ` <1277950072.4c2bf878cf89f@webmail.adelaide.edu.au>
2010-07-02 12:28 ` Robert J. MacG. Dawson
2010-07-06 12:02 Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
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