Why not choose a definition of a topology that rules out $\tau = \{\varnothing\}$

general-topology

When defining a topology via the open set definition, why do we not insist that $\varnothing \neq X$?


The open set definition of a topology includes the following things:

  1. $\varnothing$ is an element of $\tau$.
  2. $X$ is an element of $\tau$.
  3. If $\mathcal{F}$ is a family of elements of $\tau$, then $\cup \mathcal{F}$ is an element of $\tau$ too.
  4. If $A$ and $B$ are elements of $\tau$, then $A \cap B$ is an element of $\tau$.

Topologies cannot be turned into a first-order theory, but conditions (1) and (2) are reminiscent of the existence of $0$ and $1$ in fields, and in that setting we insist that $0 \ne 1$ which rules out interesting psuedofields like the field with one element.

The above analogy is extremely loose, but I'm curious why we don't do the analogous thing for topologies and insist that $\varnothing \neq X$.

Best Answer

Maybe because the empty set (considered as a topological space) is the initial object of the category of topological spaces.