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.
On the Mind
Democritus's c. 420 BCE treatise — atomic theory of perception and the soul
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | On the Mind (Mature) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | 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 | Variable |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Variable |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
On the Mind
The c. 420 BCE moment of Democritus's mature philosophical work.
Space
On the Mind
Abdera and the broader Greek philosophical setting.
Matter
On the Mind
The atomic-material soul-and-mind that the treatise describes.
Observer
On the Mind
The atomic-philosophical observer as proper subject — and the topic of the inquiry.
Energy
On the Mind
The mechanical-atomic energies of cognition.
Information
On the Mind
The cognitive-content of perception, dream, thinking — explained atomically.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Modern philosophy of mind has substantially vindicated the materialist-naturalist commitments while developing them in directions Democritus could not have foreseen; the philosophical-historical continuity is genuine but the philosophical-conceptual distance is also real.