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.
Physics
The four causes, place and void, time as the number of motion — the founding text of Western natural philosophy for two millennia
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Physics |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Relational |
| 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 | 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 | Cosmic-ordering |
| 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 | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Physics
Time is "the number of motion with respect to before and after" (Physics IV.11, 219b1) — relational and measured by change. The world has no temporal beginning. Linear and continuous.
Space
Physics
Place (topos) is the inner boundary of the containing body — a relational rather than substantival account. The Aristotelian rejection of the void (Physics IV.6-9) is one of the most famous ancient natural-philosophical doctrines.
Matter
Physics
Hylomorphic — matter and form are co-principles of natural substance. Prime matter is pure potentiality. The doctrine of the four causes is the central analytical framework.
Observer
Physics
The Aristotelian observer is the rational animal investigating nature. Active in inquiry; cosmic-ordering rather than personal metaphysical agency (the unmoved mover is the final cause of natural motion, not a personal providence).
Energy
Physics
Energeia — actuality — is one of the central technical achievements of the Physics. Substantival, conserved across natural transformations.
Information
Physics
Forms are substantival informational structures preserved across natural transformations. Personal information is famously unsettled in Aristotle (see De Anima).
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Physics's working natural philosophy was overturned by the Scientific Revolution. Galilean and Newtonian mechanics replace Aristotle's qualitative-teleological framework with mathematical laws. Whether anything of philosophical value survives the overturn — the four causes? formal explanation? final causation in biology? — has been the central question of post-Newtonian Aristotelian scholarship.