Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
The Spiritual Medicine
Reason as the cure for the passions — Platonic-Galenic soul-medicine without prophecy
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Spiritual Medicine |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Discrete |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Fallible |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Spiritual Medicine
The Spiritual Medicine does not develop a cosmology, but al-Razi's broader five-eternal framework is assumed: time is eternal, substantival, and discrete (atomist). The ethical focus is on the present: disciplining the passions requires attention to the immediate moment.
Space
The Spiritual Medicine
Not thematised in the ethical treatise. Al-Razi's broader cosmology posits infinite absolute space (the void) as one of the five eternals.
Matter
The Spiritual Medicine
The body is the site of the soul's passions. The medical analogy implies matter is real, extended, and subject to empirical investigation. Al-Razi's broader atomist cosmology is assumed.
Observer
The Spiritual Medicine
The observer is an embodied rational agent who must diagnose and cure his own moral diseases. Knowledge is immediate and fallible — reason can be clouded by passion. Active agency: the ethical life requires deliberate self-examination. Plural: the treatise addresses all rational beings.
Energy
The Spiritual Medicine
Not thematised. The broader framework of al-Razi's five eternals applies.
Information
The Spiritual Medicine
Knowledge gained through rational self-examination is not guaranteed — passions can distort judgement, hence non-conserved. No appeal to prophetic or revelatory information sources.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The treatise's chief tension is between the universality of reason (everyone has it) and the evident difficulty of moral improvement (most people are governed by passion). If reason is sufficient, why do so few use it well? Al-Razi's answer — habit, laziness, bad upbringing — is practical but does not explain why the rational faculty is so easily overwhelmed.