Unlimited Category Theories for Mathematics are Inconsistent: A Discussion of Michael Ernst's "The Prospects for Unlimited Category Theory: Doing What Remains to be Done"

Abstract: Proponents of category theory long hoped to escape the limits of set theory by founding mathematics on an unlimited category theory in which large categories, such as the category Grp of all groups, the category Top of all topological spaces, and the category Cat of all categories, would be (first-class) entities rather than just classes. Several proposals were put forward by Lawvere, MacLane, and Feferman, but none were successful. Feferman, in 1969 and 2013, proposed three requirements which an axiomatic theory of categories should fulfull in order to be an "unlimited category theory for mathematics". But in 2015 Michael Ernst proved that if an axiomatic theory of categories satisfied Fefermann's three requirements, then it is inconsistent. This paper, a presentation to the Indiana University, Bloomington, Logic Seminar, exposits Ernst's paper.