Eugenia Cheng: The Joy of Abstraction (2022, Cambridge University Press)
438 pages
English language
Published March 28, 2022 by Cambridge University Press.
Mathematician and popular science author Eugenia Cheng is on a mission to show you that mathematics can be flexible, creative, and visual. This joyful journey through the world of abstract mathematics into category theory will demystify mathematical thought processes and help you develop your own thinking, with no formal mathematical background needed. The book brings abstract mathematical ideas down to earth using examples of social justice, current events, and everyday life – from privilege to COVID-19 to driving routes. The journey begins with the ideas and workings of abstract mathematics, after which you will gently climb toward more technical material, learning everything needed to understand category theory, and then key concepts in category theory like natural transformations, duality, and even a glimpse of ongoing research in higher-dimensional category theory. For fans of How to Bake Pi, this will help you dig deeper into mathematical concepts and build your mathematical background.
This book reminded me of why I was so excited by category theory as an undergraduate. And because of that I found it to be a gripping read.
The only aspect lacking for me: I would have really liked a chapter exploring the connections that category theory has enabled, and the problems that have been solved as a result. But this excellent book has nonetheless fired me up to go and find those for myself.
