English

Categories as mathematical models

Category Theory 2015-06-26 v3

Abstract

Written to be contributed as the "mathematical modeling" chapter of a book, edited by Elaine Landry, to be titled "Categories for the Working Philosopher". In this chapter, category theory is presented as a mathematical modeling framework that highlights the relationships between objects, rather than the objects in themselves. A working definition of model is given, and several examples of mathematical objects, such as vector spaces, groups, and dynamical systems, are considered as categorical models.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1409.6067,
  title  = {Categories as mathematical models},
  author = {David I. Spivak},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.6067},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

21 pages. Written to be contributed as the "mathematical modeling" chapter of a book, edited by Elaine Landry, to be titled "Categories for the Working Philosopher"

R2 v1 2026-06-22T06:02:01.616Z