Chapters XI and XII were added in the 1998 second edition, the first in view of its importance in string theory and quantum field theory, and the second to address higher-dimensional categories that have come into prominence.[3]
Although it is the classic reference for category theory, some of the terminology is not standard. In particular, Mac Lane attempted to settle an ambiguity in usage for the terms epimorphism and monomorphism by introducing the terms epic and monic, but the distinction is not in common use.[4]
^Leinster, Tom (2014). Basic Category Theory. Cambridge University Press. p. 174. ISBN978-1-139-99285-5. "The towering presence among category theory books is the classic one by one of its founders: Saunders Mac Lane's Categories for the Working Mathematician"
^Awodey, Steve (2010). Category Theory. Oxford University Press. p. iv. ISBN978-0-19-151382-4. "Why write a new textbook on Category Theory, when we already have Mac Lane’s Categories for the Working Mathematician? Simply put, because Mac Lane’s book is for the working (and aspiring) mathematician. What is needed now, after 30 years of spreading into various other disciplines and places in the curriculum, is a book for everyone else." Awodey also dedicated the book to Saunders Mac Lane.
