Towards a theory of classification

The well-known difficulties arising in a classification which is not set-theoretically trivial—involving what is sometimes called a non-smooth quotient—have been overcome in a striking way in the theory of operator algebras by the use of what might be called a classification functor—the very existence of which is already a surprise. Here the notion of such a functor is developed abstractly, and a number of examples are considered (including those which have arisen for various classes of operator algebras).