One knows that many models of set theory exist. In topos theory,"the" category of sets is to play the role of the point. Since many models of set theory are around, I believe one of the following to be true.


1. There is one category of sets and the model determines what is true about the category of sets.
2. There are many different categories that can be called the category of sets, one for each model.


The question is: is 1 or 2 correct? Perhaps neither one is correct. In either case,what would a good reference be?



What is a category of sets?
Here is a thoroughly Platonist answer to your question: Both 1 and 2 are true. There is one category of sets. Its objects are all of the sets, and its morphisms are all of the functions between them. But there are many other categories that can be (and in fact have been) called the category of sets (by abuse of language). In fact, I often think of an arbitrary elementary topos as the category of sets.


Most non-Platonist mathematicians would say that 1 is false and 2 is true, or perhaps that one shouldn't speak of *the* category of sets at all but rather of *a* category of sets. 


A few mathematicians, who don't believe the consistency of any sort of set theory, might say that there are *no* categories that can be called the category of sets because there are no models of set theory. 


In an effort to clarify these positions, their respective advocates would assert them more loudly.


