Grothendieck introduced the term "topos" simply out of "topology" and "topological space". we should wonder who and why introduced "topology" and "topological space". Dusko Pavlovic wrote:
It might be fair to remember that "Topoi" is the title of 6th book or Aristotle's Organon. "On Categories" is the title of the 1st book of Organon.
Both concepts were very actively used by scolastic philosophers. Maybe we are their heirs of some sort ;)
It would be interesting to know about the motivations of people who introduced these terms into mathematics. I think that MacLane said at one point that there was a terminological link through Rudolf Carnap, thus through neokantians. The notion of categories plays a prominent role in Kant's first Critique. But it is even more interesting if the term topos was introduced with an intentional reference to *dialectics*, which is what that part of Organon is about.
-- dusko
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