Felix Klein Colloquium: Categorification - We climb out of Plato's cave

About 25 years ago, Louis Crane introduced the term "categorification" to describe an idea that had been in the air for some time, namely to understand "classical" structures in mathematics and mathematical physics as "shadows" of structures of a "higher" level - namely categories. This way of thinking is analogous to Plato's cave parable in philosophy and leads to two things: a) a deeper understanding of classical structures and new tools to study them; b) new mathematical structures that are extremely interesting in themselves. Categorification has therefore become a very active and diverse field of research.

In the lecture the basic idea of categorification is explained by means of some concrete examples. It is aimed at a general audience without any previous knowledge of category theory.

The lecture will be given in German language.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Thiel, TU Kaiserslautern

Time: 17:15 - 18:30 o'clock

Place: Building 48, room 210

The lectures of the Felix Klein Colloquium will be held at 17:15 in room 210 of the Mathematics Building 48. Beforehand - from 16:45 - there will be an opportunity to meet the speaker at the colloquium tea in room 580.