FOM: "function" as a basic mathematical concept

[wtait@ix.netcom.com]

I don't want to enter the argument on category theory vs set theory. But 
in the case of analysis, its foundations, as developed in the 19th 
century and as taught in courses today, is rather straightforwardly 
formalized in n-th order arithmetic---which does seem a very natural 
framework. I have wondered to what extent the naturalness of thinking in 
terms of a topos is parasitic off a prior understanding of higher order 
logic. 

As a separate point, the few tricks that are needed to translate the 
latter framework into ZFC also seem very simple.

Bill Tait