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.
Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)
Philosophy and scripture are two paths to the same truth — when they appear to conflict, the scriptural text requires allegorical interpretation
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise) (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| 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 | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Both |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)
Standard Aristotelian-Islamic cosmology. The Decisive Treatise does not develop time-theory; it presupposes the framework of the longer Commentaries.
Space
Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)
Standard medieval cosmology. Substantival, finite, three-dimensional.
Matter
Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)
Hylomorphic; created and conserved by God. The broader Aristotelian framework runs underneath.
Observer
Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)
The Averroean observer is the philosophical Muslim who reaches the truth by demonstration — embodied, plural, active in inquiry. Knowledge is total in principle through conjunction with the active intellect (the doctrine that became controversial in Latin Averroism).
Energy
Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)
Not theorised in this short treatise.
Information
Faṣl al-Maqāl (The Decisive Treatise)
Scripture and demonstration coordinate to provide the substantival informational structure of truth. Personal information is conserved across death; Islamic eschatology is presupposed.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Latin Averroist tradition's claim of "double truth" (one truth for philosophy, another for revelation) was condemned at Paris in 1277. Modern scholarship (Ernest Renan in the nineteenth century, more recently Charles Butterworth and Richard Taylor) has emphasised that Averroes himself does not hold a double-truth doctrine; the Latin reception simplified his more sophisticated position. The unicity-of-intellect thesis — that there is one shared active intellect for all humans, denying personal immortality — was the most controversial inheritance of Latin Averroism.