Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · math/0511367

A Theory of Adjoint Functors--with some Thoughts about their Philosophical Significance

David Ellerman
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The question "What is category theory" is approached by focusing on universal mapping properties and adjoint functors. Category theory organizes mathematics using morphisms that transmit structure and determination. Structures of mathematical interest are usually characterized by some universal mapping property so the general thesis is that category theory is about determination through universals. In recent decades, the notion of adjoint functors has moved to center-stage as category theory's primary tool to characterize what is important and universal in mathematics. Hence our focus here is to present a theory of adjoint functors, a theory which shows that all adjunctions arise from the birepresentations of "chimeras" or "heteromorphisms" between the objects of different categories. Since representations provide universal mapping properties, this theory places adjoints within the framework of determination through universals. The conclusion considers some unreasonably effective analogies between these mathematical concepts and some central philosophical themes.

Explore related subjects

math.CTmath.LO

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

David Ellerman. 2005-11-15. A Theory of Adjoint Functors--with some Thoughts about their Philosophical Significance. https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0511367

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

A model structure for cartesian 2-fibrations

Cartesian 2-fibrations provide a way to understand indexed categories, but their classical ``straightening'' construction requires several layers of weak coherence data. This paper develops a homotopical framework that replaces much of this bookkeeping with a fully strict model. By using marked 2-categories to record the cartesian morphisms and 2-cells, we construct a model structure whose fibrant objects are precisely the cartesian 2-fibrations over a fixed 2-category $\mathcal{C}$. We then show that the marked Grothendieck construction identifies these 2-fibrations, up to weak equivalence, with strict 2-functors from $\mathcal{C}$ into $2\mathrm{Cat}$. As an additional contribution, we construct localizations of 2-categories that simultaneously invert selected morphisms and 2-cells.

math.CT↗
arXiv2026

A Natural Fuzzy Order on Fuzzy Numbers

This paper introduces a natural fuzzy order on fuzzy numbers that extends the natural orders on real numbers and interval numbers. We investigate its completeness properties and show that the space of uniformly bounded fuzzy numbers is conically complete and conically cocomplete, and that it is complete if and only if the underlying continuous t-norm is the G\"odel t-norm. Moreover, it is proved that this space constitutes a \([0,1]\)-enriched domain if and only if the underlying continuous t-norm satisfies the (S) condition. These results provide a foundation for ordering fuzzy numbers.

math.CT↗
arXiv2026

Noetherian forms of free non-symmetric operads

In this paper, we study certain categories of labeled finite rooted ordered trees over a fixed set of labels where each label is equipped with an arity: a fixed number of children that the vertex with the given label must have. Equivalently, these are expression trees for operations in a free non-symmetric operad. A morphism between these trees matches a pruning of one tree (a prefix) with an entire subtree of another (a suffix). We characterize such categories, up to isomorphism, in terms of suitable exactness properties. It turns out that these categories exhibit strong algebraic behavior, in the sense that every such category, when appended with a strict initial object, has a particularly nice noetherian form.

math.CT↗