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.
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
Berkeley's 1732 seven dialogues — defence of Christianity against free-thinker challenges
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher (Mid) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-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 | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| 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
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
1732. Berkeley was 47; the dialogues had been drafted during his 1729-31 Rhode Island residence.
Space
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
Whitehall Farm, Middletown, Rhode Island — Berkeley's residence 1729-31 (the building still stands and is a National Historic Landmark); the dialogues are set in this country-estate setting.
Matter
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
Seven philosophical dialogues across two volumes (~400 pages in original). Form is the dialogue-philosophical genre Berkeley had used in 'Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous' (1713) — formal philosophical conversation among named characters.
Observer
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
Late Berkeley. The observer is the philosopher-bishop (Berkeley would be consecrated Bishop of Cloyne in 1734) at the height of his apologetic-philosophical authority.
Energy
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
Apologetic-dialectical energies. The dialogues combine sustained philosophical argument with the rhetorical-dramatic energies of the dialogue form.
Information
Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher
Two-volume dialogues. The seventh dialogue (on the theory of meaning) is the most philosophically distinctive material and the principal source for Berkeley's mature philosophy of language.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Berkeley's most sustained apologetic work; contains his late theory of meaning in dialogue VII. The book has been continuously read in Berkeley-scholarship; the seventh dialogue's theory of meaning anticipates aspects of later philosophy of language (the late Wittgensteinian 'meaning as use' and the broader pragmatist tradition).