intro-goals.org

Introduction to the Workshop and Its Goals

A tour of category theory from basic terminology to contemporary research applications.

An understanding of why category is a good tool

• the stories of how we each came to it,
• what the basics are,
• and how it is used in contemporary research.

Setting Expectations

1. You will know what category theory is, and what its basic terms mean.
2. You will see how category theory is used in contemporary research.
3. You will be given a pointer to textbooks and articles that can be used for self-study and as examples of category theory in the wild.
4. But you will not be able to use category theory in your research only attending this one day workshop.

General Ambitions

1. Be able to state what a category is and give a simple, personally relevant, example.
2. To understand how categorial descriptions facilitate comparisons across domains and content areas.
3. Appreciate the ability of category theory to enable the building of hierarchies that allow distinct, but similar things to be compared and measures against each other.
4. The ability to see how category theory enables the abstraction of specific problems and allows them to be considered in their more general aspects.
5. To prompt a thinking about the structure of the connections between things rather than the things themselves. And to appreciate how this focus on structure may hold the key to new insights.