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.
Margins of Philosophy
Derrida's 1972 essays — Différance, White Mythology, Signature Event Context
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Margins of Philosophy (Middle (one of three 1972 volumes)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | NDet |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Space · Curvature | Curved |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Mediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Limited |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Margins of Philosophy
1972 publication; essays composed 1967-1972. Derrida was 42; this was the peak of his publishing productivity (three books in 1972 alone).
Space
Margins of Philosophy
Paris — ENS (École normale supérieure, where Derrida had been a faculty member since 1965) and the Centre national de la recherche scientifique. The intellectual space is post-May-1968 Parisian intellectual life.
Matter
Margins of Philosophy
Ten-essay collection (~340 pages in Bass's English translation). Each essay engages a distinct topic and a distinct interlocutor (Heidegger, Aristotle, Hegel, Husserl, Austin, Saussure, Valéry, Bataille).
Observer
Margins of Philosophy
Middle Derrida. The observer is the philosopher in mid-career, applying the deconstructive method (which he had begun to develop in the 1967 books) across a wide range of philosophical-textual encounters.
Energy
Margins of Philosophy
Programmatic-deconstructive energies of the early 1970s. The book demonstrates the deconstructive method at work across the full range of the Western philosophical tradition.
Information
Margins of Philosophy
Single volume of ten essays. The opening 'Tympan' frames the book methodologically; 'Différance' provides the central conceptual statement; the other essays apply the framework.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The most influential single Derrida essay collection — home of 'Différance' and 'Signature Event Context'. 'Différance' has been continuously cited in continental philosophy as the canonical Derridean concept-formulation; 'Signature Event Context' led directly to the Derrida-Searle exchange in 'Limited Inc' (1977) and shaped the analytic-continental debate over speech-act theory.