Local set theory

In 1945, Eilenberg and MacLane introduced the new mathematical notion of category. Unfortunately, from the very beginning, category theory did not fit into the framework of either Zermelo—Fraenkel set theory or even von Neumann—Bernays—Gödel set-class theory. For this reason, in 1959, MacLane posed the general problem of constructing a new, more flexible, axiomatic set theory which would be an adequate logical basis for the whole of naïve category theory. In this paper, we give axiomatic foundations for local set theory. This theory might be one of the possible solutions of the MacLane problem.Translated from Matematicheskie Zametki, vol. 77, no. 2, 2005, pp. 194–212.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by V. K. Zakharov.This revised version was published online in April 2005 with a corrected issue number.