What is special about the retraction mapping? Can't we always find such a mapping, namely identity map of $X$. Then every space $A$ will be a retract of $X$.
EDIT: Do we need retraction to be continuous?
What is special about the retraction mapping? Can't we always find such a mapping, namely identity map of $X$. Then every space $A$ will be a retract of $X$.
EDIT: Do we need retraction to be continuous?
The identity map of $X$ only shows that $X$ is a retract of itself. For any proper subspace $A$ of $X$, $1_X$ is not a map from $X$ to $A$.