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 Descent of Man
Humans as the product of evolutionary descent — and the theory of sexual selection as a major mechanism of evolutionary change
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Descent of Man (Mature) |
|---|---|
| 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 | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| 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 | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Descent of Man
1871 first edition; 1874 revised second edition. Darwin was 62 at first publication, twelve years after the Origin and six years before his death.
Space
The Descent of Man
Down House, Kent — Darwin's permanent residence and the site of nearly all his post-1842 work.
Matter
The Descent of Man
Two-volume scientific monograph (~900 pages total in first edition). Form is empirical-cumulative: a vast accumulation of observational data on animals and humans in service of two theses (human evolutionary descent; sexual selection as a distinct evolutionary mechanism).
Observer
The Descent of Man
Late Darwin. The observer is the empirical naturalist whose accumulated data on primates, birds, dogs, and humans constitutes the book's argumentative case.
Energy
The Descent of Man
Synthesising-evolutionary energies. The book brings together two decades of Darwin's post-Origin work on sexual selection and on the mental-moral faculties of animals.
Information
The Descent of Man
Two-volume work with extensive comparative observational material across animal and human domains. The book contains more material on animal behaviour than the Origin and is the principal source for Darwin's view of the continuity of mental life across species.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Darwin's belated application of evolution to humans; the founding statement of sexual-selection theory. Its treatment of race has been criticised; its treatment of women's evolutionary role has been substantially revised by later Darwinian feminists (Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Anne Fausto-Sterling). The sexual-selection mechanism — neglected for nearly a century in the 'modern synthesis' — has been a central topic of evolutionary biology since the 1970s revival (Trivers, Hamilton, Maynard Smith).