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.
Summa Contra Gentiles
A philosophical case for Christian truth addressed to non-Christian readers — three books from reason, the fourth from revelation
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Summa Contra Gentiles (Early) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| 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
Summa Contra Gentiles
God's eternity vs created time. Aquinas defends the philosophical-theological compatibility of divine foreknowledge and human freedom developed at length in SCG I.66ff.
Space
Summa Contra Gentiles
Standard medieval cosmology. God omnipresent without being spatial; creatures finitely located.
Matter
Summa Contra Gentiles
Hylomorphic; created ex nihilo by God. SCG II is one of the most extensive discussions of creation in medieval philosophy.
Observer
Summa Contra Gentiles
The human person is body-soul composite, capable of natural knowledge of God through reason and supernatural knowledge through revelation. The beatific vision is the consummation of cognitive life.
Energy
Summa Contra Gentiles
Esse — the act of being — is the central energetic metaphysical category, sustained continuously by God.
Information
Summa Contra Gentiles
God's knowledge of creatures is the archetype; creatures participate in divine knowing. Personal information is conserved across death.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The SCG's book IV depends on revelation, while books I–III claim philosophical autonomy. The relation between these two methods has been the central interpretive question — some Thomists (Gilson) read the natural-reason arguments as themselves theologically motivated; others (Maritain) defend their philosophical autonomy.