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.
Of Grammatology
There is no outside-text — and the metaphysics of presence that privileges speech over writing is undone by writing's own structure
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Of Grammatology |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Space · Curvature | Undefined |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Non-local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Non-local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Immediate |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Constructed |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Relational |
| 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
Of Grammatology
Différance: temporal deferral is constitutive of meaning. Time is real and relational; no presence is ever fully self-present.
Space
Of Grammatology
Relational and non-local: the trace is everywhere, no presence is genuinely local.
Matter
Of Grammatology
Material writing is the privileged scene of deconstructive analysis.
Observer
Of Grammatology
The Derridean observer is decentred by the différance that constitutes its meanings. Plural, embodied, largely passive to the structure of différance.
Energy
Of Grammatology
The play of differences is the energetic principle.
Information
Of Grammatology
No substantival information; only the relational play of signifiers. Personal information not conserved.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Derrida's readers have split sharply on whether the work is a profound philosophical achievement or a rhetorical-philosophical evasion. Searle's 1977 critique and the subsequent Derrida-Searle exchange is one of the central episodes in the analytic-continental divide. Modern reception (Christopher Norris, Geoffrey Bennington) has worked to make Derrida's philosophical content more rigorously accessible.