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 Aims of the Philosophers
Al-Ghazālī's 'Aims of the Philosophers' — exposition of Aristotelian-Avicennan thought as prelude to the Tahāfut
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Aims of the Philosophers (Middle) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Energy · Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | 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
The Aims of the Philosophers
c. 1094 composition. Al-Ghazālī was 36, in the third year of his tenure at the Niẓāmiyya madrasa; the next year (1095) he would publish the Tahāfut and undergo the famous spiritual-intellectual crisis that led him to abandon his academic position.
Space
The Aims of the Philosophers
Baghdad — the Niẓāmiyya madrasa, the most prestigious Sunnī Islamic educational institution of the period.
Matter
The Aims of the Philosophers
Single philosophical exposition (~200 pages in standard Arabic editions). Form is sustained philosophical exposition divided by topic (logic, metaphysics, physics).
Observer
The Aims of the Philosophers
Middle al-Ghazālī. The observer-philosopher-theologian is in the period of greatest intellectual confidence before the crisis; he is preparing to engage the falāsifah on their own ground.
Energy
The Aims of the Philosophers
Preparatory-expository energies. The methodological strategy — understand the position from inside before refuting it — was distinctive in early Islamic theology.
Information
The Aims of the Philosophers
Single Arabic volume. The medieval Latin translation made the book a major channel for Avicennan philosophy into the Latin West.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Al-Ghazālī's most-misread book — Latin scholastics read it as itself a falsafa work, not realising it was preparatory to the Tahāfut's refutation. The reception illustrates the complex transmission histories of Islamic-Latin-medieval philosophy; the book remains a major source for Avicennan metaphysics and logic.