Two short questions:


* Is there any work classifying the lattice of subcategories of an arbitrary (sufficiently small) category $\mathcal{C}$, similar to the way that the set of subsets of set $\mathcal{S}$ is isomorphic to the functions $\mathcal{S}\to\mathbf{2}$, where $\mathbf{2}$ is a two point set?
* Is there standard notation denoting the lattice of subcategories of some category?


The definitions found in [nLab](http://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/subcategory) are phrased in terms of functors going into $\mathcal{C}$, but the definition for sets talks about functions out of the set $\mathcal{S}$. Why are things done differently? That is, rather than characterising subcategories in terms of functors into $\mathcal{C}$, why not characterise them in terms of functors out of $\mathcal{C}$? Something like:



> 
> The lattice of subcategories of $\mathcal{C}$ is isomorphic to the functor category $\mathcal{SO}^\mathcal{C}$, for some "subobject classifier" $\mathcal{SO}$.
> 
> 
> 



Lattice of subcategories: subobject classifier in Cat
In his comment on Finn Lawler's response, Mike Shulman points out that Cat has no subobject classifier in the 2-categorical sense. It also fails to have a subobject classifier in the 1-categorical sense. To see this, note that if Cat had a subobject classifier, then it would be a topos, as it is cartesian closed. However, Cat is not a topos since, e.g., it is not locally cartesian closed (cf. Johnstone's "Elephant", A1.5).


