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.
Self-Knowledge
Berdyaev's 1949 posthumous 'Self-Knowledge' — philosophical autobiography of one of the major twentieth-century Russian religious thinkers
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Self-Knowledge (Posthumous) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Finite |
| 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 | 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 | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Both |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| 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
Self-Knowledge
1940s composition; 1949 posthumous publication. Berdyaev died in March 1948 at his desk in Clamart; the book was published the following year.
Space
Self-Knowledge
Clamart, Paris — Berdyaev's permanent émigré residence from 1924 until his 1948 death. The intellectual-cultural space is the Russian-Orthodox philosophical émigré community in inter-war and post-war France.
Matter
Self-Knowledge
Posthumous philosophical autobiography (~370 pages in Lampert's English translation). Form is essayistic-philosophical-narrative: not strict chronological autobiography but philosophical reflection on the experiences that shaped his philosophical positions.
Observer
Self-Knowledge
Posthumous Berdyaev. The observer-philosopher is the seventy-something émigré recapitulating a long life of philosophical-political-religious change.
Energy
Self-Knowledge
Late-autobiographical-philosophical energies. The book combines personal narrative, philosophical exposition, and Russian-Orthodox spiritual reflection in distinctive proportions.
Information
Self-Knowledge
Single autobiographical volume. The chapters are thematic (childhood, university, Marxist period, religious turn, 1922 expulsion, Parisian exile, philosophical-political positions) rather than strictly chronological.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Berdyaev's posthumous philosophical autobiography; one of the major twentieth-century philosophical autobiographies in the Russian-Orthodox tradition. Continuously read in Russian religious-philosophical scholarship and in the broader literature on the Russian intelligentsia's twentieth-century experience; the chapters on the 1922 'philosophers' ship' have become standard historical references.