GENERALIZATION OF THE NOTION OF FUNDAMENTAL GROUP

The classical definition of fundamental group for a topological space is based on the pathwise connectedness. A space with less path will not be able to be described effectively by its fundamental group. The author introduces a definition of generalized fundamental group for a given topological space by means of its own connectedness. For a well-behaved space, e.g., a locally pathwise and semilocally simply connected compact metric space, the generalized fundamental group coincides with the classical one.