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.
Rock Edicts
Dhamma carved in stone — the Mauryan emperor's public declaration of nonviolence, tolerance, and compassion as the basis of governance
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Rock Edicts |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Cyclical |
| 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 | not engaged |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| Observer · Theological Method | Narrative |
| Energy · Extent | not engaged |
| Energy · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Energy · Conservation | not engaged |
| Energy · Dispersibility | not engaged |
| Information · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | not engaged |
| 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
Rock Edicts
The edicts presuppose Buddhist cosmological time: "this world and the next," rebirth, and the accumulation of merit across lifetimes. Ashoka's remorse for Kalinga is a turning point in historical time — a datable moral transformation within an infinite cyclical cosmos.
Space
Rock Edicts
The edicts are inscribed at specific geographic locations across the empire — Shahbazgarhi, Girnar, Dhauli — making space politically and ethically significant. Dhamma operates in real, substantival space.
Matter
Rock Edicts
Material welfare — shade trees, wells, hospitals, rest houses — is the concrete expression of dhamma. The edicts treat the material world as the medium of ethical governance.
Observer
Rock Edicts
Ashoka is the paradigmatic moral observer: his conversion after Kalinga is a transformation of the observer's moral stance. "All men are my children" — the universalisation of moral concern. Multiple time-instances through rebirth; cosmic ordering through dhamma.
Energy
Rock Edicts
Energy is not addressed. The edicts concern ethics and governance, not cosmological physics.
Information
Rock Edicts
Karmic information is conserved across rebirths — merit accumulated now determines future welfare. The edicts themselves are monumental information preservation: carved in stone to endure for millennia.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The edicts present an idealised portrait of Buddhist governance that may not match historical reality: Ashoka never disbanded his army, the empire relied on taxation and administrative coercion, and the dhamma-mahamatras may have been instruments of ideological control as much as moral guidance. The tension between the emperor's compassionate rhetoric and the realities of Mauryan power is the central scholarly debate.