ok, maybe what's different in my mind is that i am thinking about it as a phylogeny, that is, you have to look at what is primary before you can get to a given domain. set theory is founded on the fundamental topological concept of a manifold. you can't have a set without that first existing manifold. imagine the universe just started. what is the first thing that is going to happen? space would be divided up. the shapes would evolve into more complex patterns, this is all topology. set theory is after the fact. topology lets you start from really zero. then you divide it, and you start to see the beginnings of phyla of things, which you have to have before you can start talking about categorising, grouping, comparing and dividing them from each other. yes, that's the key, dividing. dividing space, be it a surface or a line or a volume, is the fundamental basis of topology. the ways in which you do this form the first sets. i still say topology is the root of all mathematics.