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.
On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin
Anselm's 'De Conceptu Virginali' — original sin as inherited privation of original justice, transmitted through generation
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| 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 | not engaged |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin
c. 1099-1100. Anselm was about 66, in exile from Canterbury (he had been forced into exile by the King William II Rufus dispute and was at the papal curia and various Italian centres during this period).
Space
On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin
Anselm's archiepiscopal exile (Lyon / Rome / various Italian locations). The treatise was composed during the most turbulent period of Anselm's primacy of England, but the philosophical-theological substance is independent of the political dispute.
Matter
On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin
Single short Latin treatise (~80 pages in standard editions). Form is the medieval-scholastic treatise: numbered chapters with sustained philosophical-theological argument.
Observer
On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin
Late Anselm. The observer-archbishop-philosopher-theologian is at the height of his philosophical-theological authority within the Latin-Christian community.
Energy
On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin
Scholastic-theological energies. The treatise combines philosophical analysis (the metaphysics of privation) with theological argument (the soteriology of the Incarnation) in distinctively Anselmian proportions.
Information
On the Virgin Conception and Original Sin
Single treatise of twenty-eight chapters. The metaphysics of privation (chapters 22-24) is the most philosophically-influential material.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Companion to Cur Deus Homo; major source for the high-medieval scholastic doctrine of original sin. Aquinas's treatment in Summa Theologiae I-II q. 81-83 directly engages it; the Catholic doctrine of original sin in its definitive medieval-scholastic form descends from this treatise.