Functor calculus via non-cubes

Abstract: We study versions of Goodwillie's calculus of functors for indexing diagrams other than cubes. We in particular construct universal excisive approximations for a larger class of diagrams, which yields an extension of the Taylor tower. We prove that the limit of this extension agrees with the limit of the Taylor tower using criteria for the existence of maps between excisive approximations. Lastly we investigate in which cases our new notions of excision coincide with classical ones.