Higher Lawvere theories

Abstract: We survey Lawvere theories at the level of infinity categories, as an alternative framework for higher algebra (rather than infinity operads). From a pedagogical perspective, they make many key definitions and constructions less technical. They are also better-suited than operads for equivariant homotopy theory and its relatives. Our main result establishes a universal property for the infinity category of Lawvere theories, which completely characterizes the relationship between a Lawvere theory and its infinity category of models. Many familiar properties of Lawvere theories follow directly. As a consequence, we prove that the Burnside category is a classifying object for additive categories, as promised in an earlier paper, and as part of a more general correspondence between enriched Lawvere theories and module Lawvere theories.