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.
Letter to Pythocles
Epicurus's 'Letter to Pythocles' — Epicurean meteorology and the multiple-explanations principle
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Letter to Pythocles (Mature) |
|---|---|
| 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 | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| 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 | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | not engaged |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Letter to Pythocles
c. 306-270 BC. Epicurus lived c. 341-270 BC; the letter is from his mature teaching period at the Athenian Garden.
Space
Letter to Pythocles
Athens — Epicurus's residence at the Garden (Kepos) from c. 306 BC until his 270 BC death.
Matter
Letter to Pythocles
Single letter preserved by Diogenes Laertius. Length: ~30 pages in modern translations.
Observer
Letter to Pythocles
Mature Epicurus. The observer-philosopher is the founder of the Epicurean school at the height of his teaching career.
Energy
Letter to Pythocles
Pedagogical-naturalistic energies. The letter is addressed to Pythocles (a young student) as a summary of Epicurean meteorological-celestial doctrine for the student's reference.
Information
Letter to Pythocles
Single letter. The 'multiple explanations' methodology is the central methodologically-distinctive material.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
One of the three surviving letters of Epicurus; introduces the 'multiple explanations' methodology distinctive to Epicurean science. The methodology has been continuously productive in philosophy of science (its proto-fallibilist character anticipates aspects of modern philosophy of science) and in the history of ancient science (Lucretius's poetic-philosophical exposition in De Rerum Natura V-VI is the principal long-form Latin treatment of the framework).