Point (geometry) - Alternative Approaches

Alternative Approaches

Although the notion of a point is generally considered fundamental in mainstream geometry and topology, there are some systems that forgo it, e.g. noncommutative geometry and pointless topology. A "pointless" or "pointfree" space is defined not as a set, but via some structure (algebraic or logical respectively) which looks like a well-known function space on the set: an algebra of continuous functions or an algebra of sets respectively. More precisely, such structures generalize well-known spaces of functions in a way that the operation "take a value at this point" may not be defined. A further tradition starts from some books of A. N. Whitehead in which the notion of region is assumed as a primitive together with the one of inclusion or connection.