Category of sets

In mathematics, the category of sets, denoted as Set, is the category whose objects are all sets and whose morphisms are all functions. It is the most basic and the most commonly used category in mathematics.

The epimorphisms in Set are the surjective maps, the monomorphisms are the injective maps, and the isomorphisms are the bijective maps.

The empty set serves as the initial object in Set with empty functions as morphisms. Every singleton is a terminal object, with the functions mapping all elements of the source sets to the single target element as morphisms. There are thus no zero objects in Set.

The category Set is complete and co-complete. The product in this category is given by the cartesian product of sets. The coproduct is given by the disjoint union: given sets A_i where i ranges over some index set I, we construct the coproduct as the union of A_i×{i} (the cartesian product with i serves to insure that all the components stay disjoint).

Set is the prototype of a concrete category; other categories are concrete if they "resemble" Set in some well-defined way.

Every two-element set serves as a subobject classifier in Set. The power object of a set A is given by its power set, and the exponential object of the sets A and B is given by the set of all functions from A to B. Set is thus a topos (and in particular cartesian closed).

Set is not abelian, additive or preadditive; it does not even have zero morphisms.

Every not initial object in Set is injective and (assuming the axiom of choice) also projective.

The size of the category of sets

In ZFC the collection of all sets ( denoted $V$ ) is not a set (this is usually proved using the axiom of foundation), it is a proper class. This has bad consequences since we can't say that $V$ belongs to something (in ZFC $A\in B$ has the consequence that $A$ is a set). This leads to problems in formalizing what category Set really is since a category is a n-uple and one of the element of this n-uple should be the collection of all sets. The straightforward definition of the category Set would therefore lead to the consequence that Set is empty (which is annoying).

One way to resolve the problem is to give up working in ZFC and choose a framework that allows quantification over proper classes. For instance, NBG set theory distinguishes between sets and classes. In this setting, the category Set is said to be large.

If we want to continue to use ZFC we can use the concept of Grothendieck universe. A universe is a set which behaves such as we expect $V$ behaves. Working with universes however suppose we add an extra axiom to the theory to be able to prove the existence of those universes. The objects of Set are no longer $V$ but some universe U.

Various other solutions, and variations on the above, have been proposed.

References

• Mac Lane, Saunders (1998). Categories for the Working Mathematician. Springer. ISBN 0-387-98403-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) (Volume 5 in the series Graduate Texts in Mathematics)