Objects of categories with no morphisms from them other than endomorphisms

category-theorymorphismuniversal-property

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a category. My question is the following. Is there a name for an object $\zeta \in \mathrm{ob}(\mathcal{C})$ such that, for every object $X \neq \zeta$, there exists no morphism $f: \zeta \rightarrow X$?

This seems to be a different approach to initial objects.

Best Answer

Notice that, from the perspective of category theory, the property you propose is not very natural, because it is not invariant under equivalence. However, we may rephrase it to be more natural by instead asking for an object $\zeta$ such that every morphism $\zeta \to X$ is an isomorphism. These are known as maximal objects. One common class of examples is given by strict terminal objects.

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