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.
Proslogion
God is "that than which nothing greater can be thought" — and from this single thought, the ontological argument for his existence follows
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Proslogion |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Both |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Both |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Proslogion
God's eternity is at the centre of the Proslogion's theology (chapter 19–22). God is not in time at all; time is created. Within creation, time is linear and uni-directional. Compatibilist resolution of foreknowledge and freedom is presupposed (and developed in De Concordia, Anselm's later treatise).
Space
Proslogion
Standard medieval cosmology, with God as omnipresent but not spatially located. Finite, ordered, three-dimensional.
Matter
Proslogion
Created good, conserved, substantival. The Proslogion does not engage matter directly; the focus is on divine simplicity and the transcendent attributes.
Observer
Proslogion
The Anselmian observer is the believer seeking understanding — embodied, plural, active in rational investigation under faith's guidance. The famous methodological formula is fides quaerens intellectum (preface). Knowledge in this life is total in principle; the beatific vision completes it. Metaphysical agency is unambiguously personal; moral authority is scripture, augmented by reason.
Energy
Proslogion
Standard medieval doctrine; not engaged in the Proslogion.
Information
Proslogion
God's knowledge is total and substantival; the divine ideas are the archetypes of all creatures. Personal information is conserved across death.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The ontological argument has been criticised since Gaunilo's "reply on behalf of the fool" (appended to early manuscripts of the Proslogion): one cannot move from concept to existence; one cannot conjure things into being by definition. Kant's critique — existence is not a real predicate — is the most influential modern objection. The argument has been defended in modal form (Hartshorne, Plantinga, Gödel) and continues to be a live topic in analytic philosophy of religion. The Proslogion's short text bears all this interpretive weight.