Origin of the term "functor"
Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that come from linguistics/semiotics? -- D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson University "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle. [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
Saunders MacLane used to tell me that it was inspired by Kant. On 7/7/13 1:34 PM, Steve Stevenson wrote:
Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that come from linguistics/semiotics?
-- D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson University "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle.
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
On Tue, 9 Jul 2013, Peter May wrote:
Saunders MacLane used to tell me that it was inspired by Kant.
Yes, for sure, "category" was inspired by Aristotle and Kant. But functor? Best regards Johannes
On 7/7/13 1:34 PM, Steve Stevenson wrote:
Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that come from linguistics/semiotics?
-- D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson University "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle.
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
In Categories for the working mathematician Mac Lane himself explains the origin of the terminology (end of first chapter): "Functor" is taken from R. Carnap, Logische Syntax der Sprache (1934). I am not sure whether linguistics/semiotics in our sense correctly refers to Carnap (Frege, Carnap, Goedel, Popper, Quine, Tarski, ...). Best regards Johannes On Sun, 7 Jul 2013, Steve Stevenson wrote:
Wikipedia says that the word "functor" is borrowed from work by Carnap on linguistics. Is anyone aware of other roots of category theory that come from linguistics/semiotics?
-- D. E. (Steve) Stevenson, PhD, Emeritus Associate Professor, Clemson University "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach," Aristotle.
[For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]
participants (3)
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Johannes Huebschmann -
Peter May -
Steve Stevenson