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.
The Nature of True Virtue
Edwards's 1765 posthumous ethical treatise — true virtue as love to being-in-general, against natural-virtue traditions
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Nature of True Virtue (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 | 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 | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| 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
The Nature of True Virtue
The c. 1755 composition; the 1765 posthumous publication.
Space
The Nature of True Virtue
The American-Puritan-philosophical-ethical setting.
Matter
The Nature of True Virtue
The embodied moral-religious agents whose virtue the treatise treats.
Observer
The Nature of True Virtue
The Edwardsian believer-philosopher as proper-philosophical-ethical subject.
Energy
The Nature of True Virtue
The religious-affective-philosophical energies of true virtue.
Information
The Nature of True Virtue
The systematic ethical-theological-philosophical content.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Nature of True Virtue has been variously assessed — defenders see major mature-Edwards philosophical-ethical achievement comparable to contemporaneous English moral-philosophical work; critics worry about the religious-foundationalist framework that subordinates non-religious-ethical positions.