Re: "First" use of 'Category theory' to describe our field

[David Roberts <droberts.65537@gmail.com>]

To add another data point, there is the 1966 book

M. Hasse und L. Michler, Theorie der Kategorien, Berlin, VEB Deutscher
Verlag der Wissenschaften, 1966

which is mentioned in this report

https://www.mfo.de/document/0908a/OWR_2009_08.pdf ("Mini-Workshop:
Category Theory and Related Fields: History and Prospects")

This ties for year of publication with

Brinkmann, H.-B., Puppe, D., Kategorien und Funktoren
(Berlin/Heidelberg/New York, LNM 18, 1966

And following

Ehresmann, Charles, Catégories et structures, Paris: Dunod 1965

(perhaps ironically, Charles Ehresmann was already doing *internal*
category theory to some extent by 1959. However: in the linked 2009
OWR Ageron writes "characterizations of Ehresmann as being a category
theorist... misses the point, scientifically and sociologically: he
cannot be characterized better than being during all of its life a
structure theorist.")

Mike Barr mentioned privately the 1966 meeting at Oberwolfach

Tagung über Kategorien 17. - 24. Juli 1966

("Conference on categories")

So I guess mid-1960s is likely to be the date.

David

David Roberts
Webpage: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/David+Roberts
Blog: https://thehighergeometer.wordpress.com

On Thu, 11 Jul 2019 at 08:21, Ross Street <ross.street@mq.edu.au> wrote:
>
> Dear David
>
> From memory, the Pure Mathematics Honours (USyd) course that Max Kelly taught in 1965
> was called ``Category Theory''. It concentrated on different kinds of morphisms
> and factorizations in a category, and finished with adjoint functors.
> Also John Gray's (UIllinois) 1968-69 graduate course had that name.
>
> From Eilenberg I heard that each person using categories should have their own category of expertise.
> I told this to John Gray who said that was fine; the time had come for that category to be Cat.
>
> I would suggest that the first category theorists to think of themselves as such were Eilenberg's students at Columbia.
> However, Mac Lane was definitely a category theorist.
>
> This is probably not the verifiable stuff you were seeking.
>
> Ross
>
>
> On 10 Jul 2019, at 10:01 PM, David Roberts <droberts.65537@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> the (idle) question is: when did the phrase 'category theory' catch on
> for the field? Clearly it didn't leap from either of the heads of
> Eilenberg or Mac Lane full-grown, since they used the phrase 'General
> theory of natural equivalences'. There are the old 'Reports of the
> Midwest Category Seminar' lecture notes (the first in 1967), which
> hints that 'category theory' wasn't quite the name in use.
>
> Even more interesting: who was the first "category theorist", by that name?
>
> Answers referring to verifiable sources would be best.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> David
>
>
>
> David Roberts
> Webpage: https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/David+Roberts
> Blog: https://thehighergeometer.wordpress.com
>
>
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>
>


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