Discrete categories / isomorphic objects in ncatlab

category-theory

https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/discrete+category

Section 2, Categorical meaning, says that for discrete categories an object only connects to itself by it's identity morphism. Why doesnt the map $x \rightarrow x+1$ for the integers connect the objects? Is the section only talking about inclusion maps to open sets?

Best Answer

I would add to the current answer that you seem to be confusing 3 different things, which each are a category associated to $\mathbb{N}$:

  • the discrete category associated to $\mathbb{N}$: for any set $X$, you can take a category whose objects are the elements of $X$, and the only morphisms are the identity of each object;

  • the category associated to $\mathbb{N}$ as an ordered set: for any (partially) ordered set $(X,\leqslant)$, you can define a category whose objects are the elements of $X$, and there is a unique morphism $x\to y$ iff $x\leqslant y$;

  • the category associated to $\mathbb{N}$ as a topological space: for any topological space $X$, you can define the category associated (like in the previous point) to the ordered set $\mathcal{O}(X)$ of open subsets of $X$, with the inclusion. That is, the objects of this category are the open subsets of $X$, and there is a morphism $U\to V$ iff $U\subset V$.

When applied to $\mathbb{N}$, this gives three different categories, although the first one is a subcategory of the second one (they have the same objects, but the second one has more morphisms), which can also be seen as a subcategory of the third one by sending $n\mapsto \{0,\dots,n\}$.

Note that since $\mathbb{N}$ is a discrete topological space for its canonical topology, the objects of the third category above actually are all subsets of $\mathbb{N}$. On the other hand, it is not at all a discrete category.

Fun fact: $\mathbb{N}$ can also be called a discrete ordered set. This does not imply that any of the second or third categories above is discrete, but it does imply that $\mathbb{N}$ is discrete as a topological space. Words are funny.

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