Conceptual Mathematics
Conceptual Mathematics by Lawvere and Schanuelby Lawvere and Schanuel
Shares rank 7 of 20 mathematics textbooks by recommenders
Recommended as an accessible introduction to category theory that needs only high-school maths.
Recommended as an accessible introduction to category theory that needs only high-school maths.
4 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 4
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 4 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Needs only high-school maths
“it only relies on high-school level maths concepts”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Profunctor Equipment in Haskell” Very good first book
“The first book seems very good”
Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Applied Category Theory Course (2018)” Looks fantastic to commenters
“That looks fantastic actually.”
Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Category Theory Illustrated – Orders”
Other mathematics textbooks people recommend
The four most recommended other mathematics textbooks, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algorithms for Optimizationby Kochenderfer and Wheeler | 10 | 1 | 91% | 1 | — | — |
| Mathematics for Computer Scienceby Lehman, Leighton and Meyer | 8 | 4 | 67% | 1 | — | — |
| Numerical Recipesby Press et al. | 7 | 1 | 88% | 5 | — | — |
| Concrete Mathematicsby Graham, Knuth and Patashnik | 7 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Conceptual Mathematicsby Lawvere and SchanuelThis page | 4 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
3 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The first book seems very good”
“it only relies on high-school level maths concepts”
“That looks fantastic actually.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.