There is another curiosity about the axioms for a category, namely the infuence of the known axioms for a groupoid (Brandt, 1926). Bill Cockcroft told me that these axioms had influenced E-M. These axioms were well used in the algebra group at Chicago. However when I asked Sammy about this in 1985 he firmly said `no, and was why the notion of groupoid did not appear as an example in the E-M paper'! Perhaps it was a case of forgetting the influence? Ronnie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Johannes Huebschmann" <huebschm@math.univ-lille1.fr> To: <categories@mta.ca> Sent: Saturday, September 06, 2008 11:48 AM Subject: categories: Categories and functors, query
Dear All
I somewhat recall that, a while ago, we discussed the origins of the notions of category and functor. S. Mac Lane had once pointed out to me these origins but from my recollections we did not entirely reproduce them.
In his paper
Samuel Eilenberg and Categories, JPAA 168 (2002), 127-131
Saunders Mac Lane clearly pointed out the origins:
"Category" from Kant (which I had known all the time)
"Functor" from Carnap's book "Logical Syntax of Language" (which I had forgotten).
Also I have a question, not directly related to the above issue:
I have seen, on some web page, a copy of the referee's report about the Eilenberg-Mac Lane paper where Eilenberg-Mac Lane spaces are introduced. I cannot find this web page (or the report) any more. Can anyone provide me with a hint where I can possibly find it?
Many thanks in advance
Johannes
HUEBSCHMANN Johannes Professeur de Mathematiques USTL, UFR de Mathematiques UMR 8524 Laboratoire Paul Painleve F-59 655 Villeneuve d'Ascq Cedex France http://math.univ-lille1.fr/~huebschm
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