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* Origin of the term "functor"
@ 2013-07-07 18:34 Steve Stevenson
  2013-07-09 12:21 ` Peter May
  2013-07-09 12:43 ` Johannes Huebschmann
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Steve Stevenson @ 2013-07-07 18:34 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Categories List

Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap
on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that
come from linguistics/semiotics?

--
D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson University
"Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle.


[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* Re:  Origin of the term "functor"
  2013-07-07 18:34 Origin of the term "functor" Steve Stevenson
@ 2013-07-09 12:21 ` Peter May
  2013-07-11  7:40   ` Johannes Huebschmann
  2013-07-09 12:43 ` Johannes Huebschmann
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: Peter May @ 2013-07-09 12:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Steve Stevenson; +Cc: Categories List

Saunders MacLane used to tell me that it was inspired by Kant.


On 7/7/13 1:34 PM, Steve Stevenson wrote:
> Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap
> on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that
> come from linguistics/semiotics?
>
> --
> D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson University
> "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle.
>

[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* Re: Origin of the term "functor"
  2013-07-07 18:34 Origin of the term "functor" Steve Stevenson
  2013-07-09 12:21 ` Peter May
@ 2013-07-09 12:43 ` Johannes Huebschmann
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Johannes Huebschmann @ 2013-07-09 12:43 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Steve Stevenson; +Cc: Categories List

In Categories for the working mathematician Mac Lane
himself explains the origin of the terminology
(end of first chapter):

"Functor" is taken from

R. Carnap, Logische Syntax der Sprache (1934).

I am not sure whether linguistics/semiotics in our sense
correctly refers to Carnap

(Frege, Carnap, Goedel, Popper, Quine, Tarski, ...).

Best regards

Johannes



On Sun, 7 Jul 2013, Steve Stevenson wrote:

> Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap
> on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that
> come from linguistics/semiotics?
>
> --
> D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson University
> "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle.


[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

* Re: Origin of the term "functor"
  2013-07-09 12:21 ` Peter May
@ 2013-07-11  7:40   ` Johannes Huebschmann
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Johannes Huebschmann @ 2013-07-11  7:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Peter May; +Cc: Steve Stevenson, Categories List

On Tue, 9 Jul 2013, Peter May wrote:

> Saunders MacLane used to tell me that it was inspired by Kant.


Yes, for sure, "category" was inspired by Aristotle and Kant.

But functor?

Best regards

Johannes




>
> On 7/7/13 1:34 PM, Steve Stevenson wrote:
>> Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap
>> on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that
>> come from linguistics/semiotics?
>>
>> --
>> D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson
>> University
>> "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle.


[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread

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2013-07-07 18:34 Origin of the term "functor" Steve Stevenson
2013-07-09 12:21 ` Peter May
2013-07-11  7:40   ` Johannes Huebschmann
2013-07-09 12:43 ` Johannes Huebschmann

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