From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/8735 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: pjf Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Jim Holt on categories Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2015 17:12:55 -0500 Message-ID: Reply-To: pjf NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1447543541 4494 80.91.229.3 (14 Nov 2015 23:25:41 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2015 23:25:41 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Sun Nov 15 00:25:34 2015 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtp3.mta.ca ([138.73.7.22]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1ZxkCL-0001gt-Hl for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Sun, 15 Nov 2015 00:25:33 +0100 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:39101) by smtp3.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1ZxkBj-00010D-KD; Sat, 14 Nov 2015 19:24:55 -0400 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1ZxkBk-0005Kp-M8 for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Sat, 14 Nov 2015 19:24:56 -0400 Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:8735 Archived-At: Jim Holt wrote in his "Diary" on Slate, 2000--11--27 Category theory is a ridiculously abstract framework that takes all the meaning out of mathematics. In his review of Michael Harris's "Mathematics Without Apologies: Portrait of a Problematic Vocation" (Princeton University Press, 2015) Holt writes (The New York Review of Books, 2015--12--03): ...Grothendieck made [category theory] sing. Between 1958 and 1970, he used category theory to create novel structures of unexampled richness. Since then, the heady abstractions of category theory have also become useful in theoretical physics, computer science, logic and philosophy. Footnote: A charming and improbably successful attempt to explain category theory in culinary terms is made by the mathematician Eugenia Cheng in her new book "How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploriation of the Mathematics of Mathematics" (Basic Books, 2015) (See also Barany's review of Harris on MathSciNet MR3289987) I do have one quesion: what does "enexampled richness" mean? [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]