Category theory MOC

History of Category Theory

The following is a brief history of category theory, given by Steve Awodey¹

• 1945 Samuel Eilenberg and Saunders Mac Lane originate the theory in their paper General theory of natural equivalences.
• Late 1940s The main applications were originally in the fields of Algebraic Topology, particularly homology theory, and Abstract algebra MOC.
• 1950s Alexander Grothendieck and others begin applying category theory to Algebraic Geometry.
• 1950s F. William Lawvere and others begin applying category theory to Logic MOC
• 1970s Applications begin to appear in computer science, linguistics, cognitive science, philosophy, and many others.

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