Conceptual Mathematics

Foreword; Note to the reader; Preview; Part I. The Category of Sets: 1. Sets, maps, composition; Part II. The Algebra of Composition: 2. Isomorphisms; Part III. Categories of Structured Sets: 3. Examples of categories; Part IV. Elementary Universal Mapping Properties: 4. Universal mapping properties; Part V. Higher Universal Mapping Properties: 5. Map objects; 6. The contravariant parts functor; 7. The components functor; Appendix 1. Geometry of figures and algebra of functions; Appendix 2. Adjoint functors; Appendix 3. The emergence of category theory within mathematics; Appendix 4. Annotated bibliography.

Schanuel, Stephen H.Stephen H. Schanuel is a Professor of Mathematics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has previously held positions at Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Advanced Study and Cornell University, as well as lecturing at institutions in Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Colombia, Canada, Ireland, and Australia. Best known for Schanuel's Lemma in homological algebra (and related work with Bass on the beginning of algebraic K-theory), and for Schanuel's Conjecture on algebraic independence and the exponential function, his research thus wanders from algebra to number theory to analysis to geometry and topology.

'This text, written by two experts in Category Theory and tried out carefully in courses at SUNY Buffalo, provides a simple and effective first course on conceptual mathematics.' American Mathematical Monthly '... every mathematician should know the basic ideas and techniques explained in this book ...' Monatshefte fur Mathematik 'Conceptual Mathematics provides an excellent introductory account to categories for those who are starting from scratch. It treats material which will appear simple and familiar to many philosophers, but in an unfamiliar way.' Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 'Category Theory slices across the artificial boundaries dividing algebra, arithmetic, calculus, geometry, logic, topology. If you have students you wish to introduce to the subject, I suggest this delightfully elementary book . Lawvere is one of the greatest visionaries of mathematics in the last half of the twentieth century. He characteristically digs down beneath the foundations of a concept in order to simplify its understanding. Schanuel has published research in diverse areas of Algebra, Topology, and Number Theory and is known as a great teacher. I have recommended this book to motivated high school students. I certainly suggest it for undergraduates. I even suggest it for the mathematician who needs a refresher on modern concepts.' National Association of Mathematicians Newsletter 'Conceptual Mathematics is the first book to serve both as a skeleton key to mathematics for the general reader or beginning student and as an introduction to categories for computer scientists, logicians, physicists, linguists, etc ... The fundamental ideas are illuminated in an engaging way.' L'Enseignment Mathematique