From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/9943 Path: news.gmane.org!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: David Roberts Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: "First" use of 'Category theory' to describe our field Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2019 10:36:49 +0930 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: David Roberts Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Injection-Info: blaine.gmane.org; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:195.159.176.226"; logging-data="11885"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@blaine.gmane.org" Cc: "categories@mta.ca list" To: Ross Street , "Michael Barr, Prof." Original-X-From: majordomo@mlist.mta.ca Fri Jul 12 21:44:31 2019 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from smtp2.mta.ca ([198.164.44.55]) by blaine.gmane.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1hm1T1-0002qr-FD for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Fri, 12 Jul 2019 21:44:27 +0200 Original-Received: from mlist.mta.ca ([138.73.1.63]:34584) by smtp2.mta.ca with esmtp (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1hm1Sh-0001Aj-CX; Fri, 12 Jul 2019 16:44:07 -0300 Original-Received: from majordomo by mlist.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1hm1Ru-0003DT-Sh for categories-list@mlist.mta.ca; Fri, 12 Jul 2019 16:43:18 -0300 In-Reply-To: <10CF2601-2F4E-4E47-B36F-B4A1A1FEB55C@mq.edu.au> Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:9943 Archived-At: 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, Cat=C3=A9gories 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 =C3=BCber 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 wrote: > > Dear David > > From memory, the Pure Mathematics Honours (USyd) course that Max Kelly ta= ught in 1965 > was called ``Category Theory''. It concentrated on different kinds of mor= phisms > 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 thei= r own category of expertise. > I told this to John Gray who said that was fine; the time had come for th= at 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 wro= te: > > 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 nam= e? > > 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 > > > [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ] > > [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]