Starting Category Theory

One of the central highlights of this work is the exploration of the Yoneda lemma and its profound implications, during which intuitive explanations are provided, as well as detailed proofs, and specific examples. This book covers aspects of category theory often considered advanced in a clear and intuitive way, with rigorous mathematical proofs. It investigates universal properties, coherence, the relationship between categories and graphs, and treats monads and comonads on an equal footing, providing theorems, interpretations and concrete examples. Finally, this text contains an introduction to monoidal categories and to strong and commutative monads, which are essential tools in current research but seldom found in other textbooks. Starting Category Theory serves as an accessible and comprehensive introduction to the fundamental concepts of category theory. Originally crafted as lecture notes for an undergraduate course, it has been developed to be equally well-suited for individuals pursuing self-study. Most crucially, it deliberately caters to those who are new to category theory, not requiring readers to have a background in pure mathematics, but only a basic understanding of linear algebra.