nLab applied category theory

Contents

Contents

Idea

The whole point of category theory is to study fundamental general abstract patterns and phenomena that (re-)appear throughout mathematics. Hence applications of theorems of category theory are ubiquituous in mathematics and in subjects with a mathematical basis, such as physics and computer science. Often this goes without saying.

In the introduction to Bradley 18 it says:

… ideas and results from category theory have found applications in computer science and quantum physics (not to mention pure mathematics itself), but these are not the only applications to which the word applied in applied category theory is being applied…

category theory has found applications in a wide range of disciplines outside of pure mathematics—even beyond the closely related fields of computer science and quantum physics. These disciplines include chemistry, neuroscience, systems biology, natural language processing, causality, network theory, dynamical systems, and database theory to name a few. And what do they all have in common? … In other words, the techniques, tools, and ideas of category theory are being used to identify recurring themes across these various disciplines with the purpose of making them a little more formal.

References

John Baez ran a series of lectures based on this book:

Last revised on March 13, 2023 at 11:59:39. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.