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Work #228 · Late-mid (looking back over the formative years)

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Mohandas K. Gandhi
1925-29 (originally serialised in the weekly Navajivan; the chapters cover Gandhi's life through the early Indian campaigns up to 1921) · Gujarati
Spiritual-political autobiography in five parts · Indian political philosophy / spiritual autobiography

The "experiments with truth" — Gandhi's spiritual-political journey from childhood through early satyagraha, the major source for his self-understanding

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (Late-mid (looking back over the formative years))
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 Both
Observer · Number Singular
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Cosmic-ordering
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 Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

The autobiographical-developmental time of spiritual-political experiment, from childhood through the early Indian campaigns.

Space

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

The geographies of the autobiography — Gujarat, London, South Africa, India — as the changing theatres of the experiments.

Matter

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

The embodied life of the experiments — diet, celibacy, manual labour, spinning, fasting.

Observer

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Gandhi himself as the singular first-person observer — embodied, narrating his ongoing experiments. Truth (satya/God) as cosmic framework.

Energy

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

The personal-spiritual energies of self-discipline, satyagraha, ahimsa.

Information

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

The personal experiments preserved in autobiography; the broader Gandhian tradition's accumulating wisdom.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth

Gandhi's candid discussion of his sexual life (including the experiments with celibacy and the late-life "sleeping with young women" tests) has been continuously controversial. His treatment of his wife Kasturba and his eldest son Harilal has been criticised. Post-colonial and feminist scholarship has engaged the Autobiography with both appreciation and critique. The relation between the Autobiography's personal-spiritual framing and the broader political achievements (and failures) of the Indian independence movement remains a continuing scholarly theme.