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.
Self-Made Men
Douglass's 1859-93 lecture — repeatedly delivered analysis of the "self-made man" ideal
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Self-Made Men (Mid-Late) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Finite |
| 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 | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Experience |
| 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 | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Self-Made Men
The 1859-93 thirty-four-year repeatedly-delivered lecture period.
Space
Self-Made Men
The American Civil-War-Reconstruction-post-Reconstruction setting.
Matter
Self-Made Men
The embodied American political community Douglass addressed.
Observer
Self-Made Men
Douglass as proper African-American political-intellectual lecturer.
Energy
Self-Made Men
The political-rhetorical energies of late-Douglass.
Information
Self-Made Men
The systematic political-rhetorical content of the lecture.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Self-Made Men has been variously assessed — defenders see proper-Douglass political-intellectual achievement, critics within the Black-radical tradition have variously assessed the proper-liberal-individualist framework alongside the proper-political-collectivist work.