protest_boy comments on Open thread, 14-20 July 2014 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: David_Gerard 14 July 2014 11:16AM

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Comment author: protest_boy 26 July 2014 11:56:46PM -1 points [-]

Thanks for your enticing comment!

I understand your first point, but my math knowledge is not up to par to really understand point #2, and point #3 just makes me want to learn category theory. BTW, I also posted this question on the philosophy stackexchange: http://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/14689/how-does-abstraction-generalization-in-mathematics-fit-into-inductive-reasoning.

Do you have any recommendations of what to study to understand category theory and more about the foundations of math? (Logic, type theory, computability & logic, model theory seem like contenders here)

Comment author: MrMind 28 July 2014 07:24:08AM 1 point [-]

You're welcome!
Foundation(s) of math is a huge and fascinating topic by itself, but if you're more interested in the intricacy of abstraction hierarchies you should look no further than category theory, the Yoneda lemma, up up to doctrine theory. I love as a good introduction Category Theory by Awodey. As for the foundation of math, very good for dipping your toes are the first chapters of Marker's introduction to model theory and the recently reprinted Set theory by Kunen (set theory models are a vast subject by themselves...)