Abstract
Firm formal definitions come first in any systematic foundation of Mathematics. Hitherto, however, we have not formally defined the notion “function”, although we have used the notion extensively and consider it central to the organization of Mathematics. This delay was deliberate, since it has allowed the assembly of part of that wide variety of examples from which arises the general and abstract notion of function. Though some may hold that “abstract notions are difficult to understand” we hold with G. Kreisel that these notions “in fact, are usually introduced to make concrete situations intelligible” (Math Reviews 37 (1969) # 1224).
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© 1986 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Mac Lane, S. (1986). Functions, Transformations, and Groups. In: Mathematics Form and Function. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4872-9_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4872-9_6
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