Remark 2.3.5.2 (Comparison with the Path Category). Let $(Q, \leq )$ be a partially ordered set. We let $\operatorname{Path}[Q]$ denote the underlying category of the strict $2$-category $\operatorname{Path}_{(2)}[Q]$. The category $\operatorname{Path}[Q]$ can be described concretely as follows:
The objects of $\operatorname{Path}[Q]$ are the elements of $Q$.
If $x$ and $y$ are elements of $Q$, then a morphism from $x$ to $y$ in $\operatorname{Path}[Q]$ is given by a finite linearly ordered subset
\[ S = \{ x = x_0 < x_1 < x_2 < \cdots < x_ n = y \} \subseteq Q \]having least element $x$ and largest element $y$.
Note that $\operatorname{Path}[Q]$ can also be realized as the path category of a directed graph $\mathrm{Gr}(Q)$ (as defined in Construction 1.3.7.1). Here $\mathrm{Gr}(Q)$ denotes the underlying directed graph of the category $Q$, given concretely by
where we regard each ordered pair $(x,y) \in \operatorname{Edge}( \mathrm{Gr}(Q) )$ as an edge with source $s(x,y) = x$ and target $t(x,y) = y$.