Ask Eugenia Cheng about Category Theory!
We are excited to announce a book club for The Joy of Abstraction, a new book by Eugenia Cheng. The Joy of Abstraction is a wonderful introduction to category theory for anyone who wants to get into the formality of the subject but does not necessarily have the mathematical background to read a standard textbook. Mathematics is a communal enterprise, and when learning new concepts, sometimes it just helps to be able to ask an expert. We also envision category theory and mathematics as an inclusive community, and want to give everyone the opportunity to get involved. So we were thrilled when Dr Cheng generously offered to partner with us to host a book club giving readers the opportunity to ask her questions. What better expert than the author herself?
We are excited to announce a book club for The Joy of Abstraction, a new book by Eugenia Cheng. The Joy of Abstraction is a wonderful introduction to category theory for anyone who wants to get into the formality of the subject but does not necessarily have the mathematical background to read a standard textbook. Part 1 starts gently, so that readers can build up to the formality of rigorous mathematics even if they haven’t encountered it before. Part 2 gets into formal rigorous category theory, including limits and colimits, duality, functors, natural transformations, and the Yoneda lemma.
Mathematics is a communal enterprise, and when learning new concepts, sometimes it just helps to be able to ask an expert. We also envision category theory and mathematics as an inclusive community, and want to give everyone the opportunity to get involved. So we were thrilled when Dr Cheng generously offered to partner with us to host a book club giving readers the opportunity to ask her questions. What better expert than the author herself?
The book club will proceed at an approximate rate of one chapter per week, beginning this month. We invite readers to submit questions for each chapter according to a published schedule, with questions for the first chapter accepted until Sunday February 19th.
We will then collate the questions and Dr Cheng will make a video each week addressing the questions for that chapter. You will remain anonymous when asking the questions so please don’t hesitate to ask questions that might feel “stupid”. We welcome any question that comes from you wanting to understand something more!
For more about the book club, including on how to submit questions, and to see the videos themselves after they are posted, see the book club website.
This book club is open to everyone everywhere. Please spread the word!
You can find out more information about the book and a sample video of Dr Cheng below: