Could $\infty$-category theory be taught to undergraduates?

Emily Riehl

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arXiv · 2302.07855

Could $\infty$-category theory be taught to undergraduates?

Emily Riehl

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Abstract

The extension of ordinary category theory to $\infty$-categories at the start of the 21st century was a spectacular achievement pioneered by Joyal and Lurie with contributions from many others. Unfortunately, the technical arguments required to solve the infinite homotopy coherence problems inherent in these results make this theory difficult for non-experts to learn. This essay surveys two programs that seek to narrow the gap between $\infty$-category theory and ordinary 1-category theory. The first leverages similarities between the categories in which 1-categories and $\infty$-categories live as objects to provide "formal" proofs of standard categorical theorems. The second, which is considerably more speculative, explores $\infty$-categories from new "univalent" foundations closely related to homotopy type theory.

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Emily Riehl. 2023-02-15. Could $\infty$-category theory be taught to undergraduates?. https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07855

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