Re: Misclassification of packages; "libs" and "doc" sections
"Thomas Bushnell, BSG" wrote:
>
> Um, no, it just doesn't. Category Theory in mathematics just doesn't
> talk about the "nature of reference" or other things like that in
> interesting philosophical ways. The relationship of Category Theory
> in math to the philosophical notion of "Categories" is rather like the
> relationship of "color" in Quantum Chromodynamics to that in painting.
This analogy didn't seem to me well adjusted since painting would seem
to involve things other than fundamental questions.
> There is no connection except a vague allusional one between the
> mathematical and philosophical notions of a "category". "Category" in
> math is a technical term for a particular kind of structure, and
> doesn't say much about where the notion came from. You can't learn
> anything about making jewelry from studing Rings in math, and you
> can't learn about philosophical Categories from studying mathematical
> Category Theory.
The most obvious relation is from the Philosophy of Mind. Hold the
typical analytical view that thinking is essentially computational,
and posit that there exist categories in your mind, and that categorical
objects exhaust the definition of "reference". Not very different
from what formal semantics community has been doing with logic, still
the philosophy of language is intimately interested in "Predicate"
as it pertains to philosophical theories of meaning. I simply think
we have a difference in tradition.
On the other hand, it would not be correct to talk about the philosophy
of "Categories" without mentioning Aristotelian or Kantian views of
the matter. I'd read that Husserl had a general theory of Categories
but I haven't had the chance to study it.
Anyway, you're the philosopher here. But perhaps you don't maintain
a computational view of mind? ;)
If you'd prefer just reply to me, so we can avoid cluttering the list.
Regards,
--
Eray (exa) Ozkural
Comp. Sci. Dept., Bilkent University, Ankara
e-mail: erayo@cs.bilkent.edu.tr
www: http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~erayo
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