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.
Topics
Dialectical reasoning from probable premises — distinct from demonstrative syllogism — has its own proper structure and uses, foundational for philosophical and rhetorical argument
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Topics (Mid-mature) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| 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 | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| 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 | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Topics
The temporal unfolding of dialectical disputation — question, answer, objection, reply.
Space
Topics
The disputational space — the Academy, the Lyceum, later the medieval schools — within which dialectic operates.
Matter
Topics
The propositions and concepts that are the material of dialectical reasoning.
Observer
Topics
The dialectician and his interlocutor; the philosophical analyst observing the practice.
Energy
Topics
The intellectual energy of careful argument; the strategic energy of dialectical skill.
Information
Topics
The systematic taxonomy of topoi; the catalogue of strategic argument-patterns.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Topics' status — closer to logic, closer to rhetoric, closer to philosophy itself — has been variously assessed across the tradition. Modern argumentation theory has restored attention to its rich practical content after centuries when it was eclipsed by the syllogistic Prior Analytics.