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.
Han Feizi
Government by law, technique, and authority — the ruler who needs no virtue because the system has it built in
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Han Feizi |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | not engaged |
| Space · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | not engaged |
| Matter · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Matter · Conservation | not engaged |
| 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 | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Constructed |
| Observer · Theological Method | N/A |
| Energy · Extent | not engaged |
| Energy · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Energy · Conservation | not engaged |
| Energy · Dispersibility | not engaged |
| Information · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-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
Han Feizi
History is progressive and non-repeating: the conditions of the sage-kings are gone, and their methods are therefore obsolete. "People of high antiquity competed over morality; people of middle antiquity competed over wisdom; people of the present compete over power." (Ch. 49, Watson) The past is not normative.
Space
Han Feizi
No metaphysics of space. The relevant space is the territory of the state — borders, strategic terrain, administrative districts. Space is a practical problem, not a philosophical one.
Matter
Han Feizi
No philosophical treatment of matter. The material world is the taken-for-granted backdrop of political action: resources to be managed, populations to be governed.
Observer
Han Feizi
The ideal observer is the enlightened ruler (mingzhu) who sees through appearances using techniques of investigation. Knowledge is empirical and immediate — verify claims by outcomes, test officials against their own words. "The ruler hides his tracks, conceals his motives, and checks results against claims." (Ch. 5, paraphrase)
Energy
Han Feizi
Not addressed metaphysically. Political "energy" is positional authority (shi) — the impersonal power of the office, not the person. "Even a worthless ruler can govern if the system of rewards and punishments is correct." (Ch. 40, paraphrase)
Information
Han Feizi
Information is the ruler's most important weapon: gathering intelligence, controlling the flow of knowledge, testing claims against reality. It is emergent and non-conserved — a tool of governance, not an eternal truth. "The ruler should not reveal his desires; if he reveals them, his ministers will polish their conduct accordingly." (Ch. 5, Watson)
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The central tension: Taoist wu-wei (non-action) as the justification for maximal institutional intervention. The ruler does nothing personally — but the system he builds does everything. A second tension: Han Feizi's progressive historicism undermines his own authority. If every age demands new methods, his prescriptions are as perishable as those of the sage-kings he criticises. A third: the Qin dynasty's rapid fall after implementing his ideas suggests that a system built entirely on rewards and punishments, without the moral education he rejected, is unstable.