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.
The Human Cycle
Aurobindo's 1949 'Human Cycle' — psychological stages of human collective development (Symbolic, Typal, Conventional, Individualist, Subjective)
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Human Cycle (Middle) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Non-local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Non-local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Both |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| 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
The Human Cycle
1916-1918 serialisation; 1949 book publication. Aurobindo was 44-46 at original composition (he had moved to Pondicherry in April 1910 after his 1908-09 imprisonment).
Space
The Human Cycle
Pondicherry, French India — Aurobindo's residence from 1910 until his 1950 death. The Pondicherry community (which would become the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, formally established 1926) was the institutional context for the Arya monthly publication.
Matter
The Human Cycle
Philosophical-historical treatise (~250 pages in standard editions). Form is sustained philosophical argument with extensive engagement with European and Indian history.
Observer
The Human Cycle
Middle Aurobindo. The observer-philosopher is in the middle period of his post-Pondicherry productivity, articulating the integral-yoga framework's implications for social-political philosophy.
Energy
The Human Cycle
Integral-evolutionary-historical energies. The book's distinctive force is its application of evolutionary-spiritual framework to the broader human-historical process.
Information
The Human Cycle
Single book derived from serialised Arya essays. The five-stage developmental framework is the central informational structure.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Aurobindo's principal philosophy-of-history work. Continuously read in the broader Aurobindonian-Integral-yoga community and in non-Western philosophy-of-history scholarship; the book's framework has been influential in contemporary integral-philosophy work (Ken Wilber's 'Integral' synthesis draws on it heavily).