Cayley's Theorem (Category Theory)/Historical Note

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Historical Note on Cayley's Theorem (Category Theory)

Although Cayley did not prove this result, it is similar enough in both statement and proof to Cayley's Representation Theorem as to merit his name being appended to it.

As Steve Awodey states it in Category Theory, 2nd ed.:

[Cayley's] theorem may be generalized to show that any category that is not "too big" can be represented as a [...] category of sets and functions.
-- 2010: Steve Awodey: Category Theory (2nd ed.), p. 13

The contributor Lord_Farin subsequently was as audacious as to name the general result after Cayley as well.


Sources