ing yet further from reality, we might proscribe the simultaneous effect of two or more methods on an object's state; doing so, we impose a monoid structure on the fixed set of methods proper to an object class. Applying methods one after the other corresponds to multiplication in the monoid, and applying no methods corresponds to the identity of the monoid. A monoid is a set M with an associative binary operation ffl M : M \ThetaM ! M , usually referred to as `multiplication', which has an identity element e M 2 M . If M = (M; ffl M ; e M ) is a monoid, we often write just M for M, and e for e M ; moreover for m;m 0 2 M , we usually write mm 0 instead of m ffl M m 0 . For example, A , the set of lists containing elements of A, together with concatenation ++ : A \ThetaA ! A and the empty list [ ] 2 A , is a monoid. This example is especially important for the material in later sections. A monoid homomorphism is a structure preserving map between the carriers of ...

Much Australian work on categories is part of, or relevant to, the development of higher categories and their theory. In this note, I hope to describe some of the origins and achievements of our efforts that they might perchance serve as a guide to the development of aspects of higher-dimensional work. I trust that the somewhat autobiographical style will add interest rather than be a distraction. For so long I have felt rather apologetic when describing how categories might be helpful to other mathematicians; I have often felt even worse when mentioning enriched and higher categories to category theorists. This is not to say that I have doubted the value of our work, rather that I have felt slowed down by the continual pressure to defend it. At last, at this meeting, I feel justified in speaking freely amongst motivated researchers who know the need for the subject is well established. Australian Category Theory has its roots in homology theory: more precisely, in the treatment of the cohomology ring and the Künneth formulas in the book by Hilton and Wylie [HW]. The first edition of the book had a mistake concerning the cohomology ring of a product. The Künneth formulas arise from splittings of the natural short exact sequences

Grothendieck toposes are studied via the process of taking the associated Sl-enriched category of category of relations. As a result, pullback and comma toposes are calculated in a new way. The calculations are used to give a new characterization of localic morphisms and to derive interpolation and conceptual completeness properties for a certain class of interpretations between geometric theories. A simple characterization of internal sup-lattices in terms of external Sl-enriched category theory is given. Contents Page