FOM: topos theory vs. sheaves

Stephen G Simpson simpson at math.psu.edu
Thu Jan 15 13:18:34 EST 1998


Colin McLarty writes:
 > The point is that Weyl very consciously uses general group theory
 > as far as he can to unify his treatment of the very special
 > cases--that is why he titled the book as he did (actually THE
 > THEORY OF GROUPS AND QUANTUM MECHANICS in English). The people in
 > SLNM 753 take their tools from elementary topos theory, and use it
 > to explain, unify, and motivate their work.

Then why didn't the SLNM 753 folks mention toposes in the title of
*their* book?  The actual title is: "Applications of Sheaves".  I have
looked at some of the essays, and I find that they don't really say
much to me about toposes in general.

But maybe that's because I don't really understand topos theory in its
full gorious generality.  I understand sheaves well enough, but I find
toposes confusing.  More on this in my next posting.

-- Steve




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