I think we should say it publicly. Gays get to have gay pride, why shouldn't categorists get to have category-theory pride? Perhaps we've just been in the closet too long. I think it's the right thing to do to explain to people that this stuff is interesting and worthwhile to us. Worst of all would be to let the fear of shame keep us from saying what we hold as true. If I consider category theory to be good, beautiful, valid math, then I shouldn't be shy about saying as much. If someone else doesn't consider it to be "real math," he or she can challenge me -- I'm up for that discussion. The worst they can do is not give me a job, but this is not an issue because I don't belong at a place that doesn't respect category theory. Andre is right -- category theory is probably the most important mathematical developpement of the 20th century. David On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 6:13 AM, Joyal, André <joyal.andre@uqam.ca> wrote:
Category theory is a powerful mathematical language. It is extremely good for organising, unifying and suggesting new directions of research. It is probably the most important mathematical developpement of the 20th century.
But we cant say that publically.
André Joyal
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