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.
Specters of Marx
Derrida's 1993 'Specters of Marx' — hauntology, the New International, and 'one must read Marx' after the fall of the Wall
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Specters of Marx (Late) |
|---|---|
| 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
Specters of Marx
April 1993 conference keynote; October 1993 French publication; 1994 English publication. The book appeared four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and two years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991).
Space
Specters of Marx
UC Riverside (conference venue) / Paris. The intellectual space is the post-Soviet conjuncture in which Marxist intellectual traditions were being widely declared obsolete.
Matter
Specters of Marx
Single late monograph (~270 pages in Kamuf's translation). Form is sustained philosophical-political-rhetorical essay; Derrida's late-prose style combines extended close reading (of Marx, of Shakespeare's Hamlet, of Marx's Communist Manifesto) with direct political engagement.
Observer
Specters of Marx
Late Derrida. The observer-philosopher is the most prominent post-structuralist intellectual making an explicit political-philosophical intervention in the post-Cold-War conjuncture.
Energy
Specters of Marx
Political-philosophical energies of the post-1989 conjuncture. The book combines deconstructive analytical method with the most direct political engagement of Derrida's late career.
Information
Specters of Marx
Single volume, expanded from a lecture. The four major movements (necessity-of-Marx / ten plagues / work of mourning / New International) provide the central informational structure.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Late Derrida's most explicitly political book; coined 'hauntology', deeply influential on post-1989 left-wing thought. The hauntology concept has been continuously productive (Mark Fisher's 'Capitalist Realism' 2009 and 'Ghosts of My Life' 2014 build directly on it); the 'New International' framework has shaped subsequent radical-democratic political thinking.