Category theoretic structure of setoids

Abstract

A setoid is a set together with a constructive representation of an equivalence relation on it. Here, we give category theoretic support to the notion. We first define a category Setoid and prove it is Cartesian closed with coproducts. We then enrich it in the Cartesian closed category Equiv of sets and classical equivalence relations, extend the above results, and prove that Setoid as an Equiv-enriched category has a relaxed form of equalisers. We then recall the definition of E-category, generalising that of Equiv-enriched category, and show that Setoid as an E-category has a relaxed form of coequalisers. In doing all this, we carefully compare our category theoretic constructs with Agda code for type-theoretic constructs on setoids.