For a symmetric monoidal-closed category V and a suitable monad T on the category of sets, we introduce the notion of reflexive and transitive (T , V)-algebra and show that various old and new structures are instances of such algebras. Lawvere's presentation of a metric space as a V-category is included in our setting, via the Betti-Carboni-Street-Walters interpretation of a V-category as a monad in the bicategory of V-matrices, and so are Barr's presentation of topological spaces as lax algebras, Lowen's approach spaces, and Lambek's multicategories, which enjoy renewed interest in the study of n-categories. As a further example, we introduce a new structure called ultracategory which simultaneously generalizes the notions of topological space and of category.

Exponentiable maps in the category Top of topological spaces are characterized by an easy ultrafilter-interpolation property, in generalization of a recent result by Pisani for spaces. From this characterization we deduce that perfect (= proper and separated) maps are exponentiable, generalizing the classical result for compact Hausdorff spaces. Furthermore, in generalization of the Whitehead-Michael characterization of locally compact Hausdorff spaces, we characterize exponentiable maps of Top between Hausdorff spaces as restrictions of perfect maps to open subspaces.

For a complete cartesian-closed category V with coproducts, and for any pointed endofunctor T of the category of sets satisfying a suitable Beck-Chevalley-type condition, it is shown that the category of lax reflexive (T , V)-algebras is a quasitopos. This result encompasses many known and new examples of quasitopoi. 1.

Abstract. The definition of a category of (T, V)-algebras, where V is a unital com-mutative quantale and T is a Set-monad, requires the existence of a certain lax extensionof T. In this article, we present a general construction of such an extension. This leads tothe formation of two categories of (

Abstract. In this paper we investigate effective descent morphisms in categories of reflexive and transitive lax algebras. We show in particular that open and proper maps are effective descent, result that extends the corresponding results for the category of topological spaces and continuous maps.

Abstract. Categories of lax (T, V)-algebras are shown to have pullbackstable coproducts if T preserves inverse images. The general result not only gives a common proof of this property in many topological categories but also shows that important topological categories, like the

It is known since 1973 that Lawvere’s notion of (Cauchy-)complete enriched category is meaningful for metric spaces: it captures exactly Cauchy-complete metric spaces. In this paper we introduce the corresponding notion of Lawvere completeness for (Ì, V)-categories and show that it has an interesting meaning for topological spaces and quasi-uniform spaces: for the former ones means weak sobriety while for the latter means Cauchy completeness. Further, we show that V has a canonical (Ì, V)-category structure which plays a key role: it is Lawvere-complete under reasonable conditions on the setting; permits us to define a Yoneda embedding in the realm of (Ì, V)-categories.

Dedicated to Walter Tholen on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday