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.
Object-Oriented Ontology
Harman's 2018 Pelican 'Object-Oriented Ontology' — accessible introduction to OOO for general readers
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Object-Oriented Ontology (Late-middle) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Relational |
| 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 | 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 | Finite |
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Object-Oriented Ontology
2018. Harman was 50 and had moved from American University in Cairo (his previous institutional base) to the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles.
Space
Object-Oriented Ontology
Los Angeles (SCI-Arc) — the architectural-design institutional context that has been one of the main institutional homes of OOO since the mid-2010s.
Matter
Object-Oriented Ontology
Single popular philosophical introduction (~290 pages). Form is accessible-essayistic; each chapter is self-contained and the book can be read by readers without philosophical training.
Observer
Object-Oriented Ontology
Late-middle Harman. The observer-philosopher is the leading OOO theorist consolidating fifteen years of OOO work into a single accessible synthesis.
Energy
Object-Oriented Ontology
Popularising-philosophical energies. The Pelican Books series is specifically designed for accessible academic-philosophical introduction; the book exemplifies that genre.
Information
Object-Oriented Ontology
Single Pelican introduction. The four-fold object theory (RO / RQ / SO / SQ) is the central informational structure.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Most accessible Harman; the standard general-reader introduction to OOO. Has shaped the broader humanities and design-studies reception of OOO; the book's accessibility has made it the principal entry-point for non-philosophers (architects, designers, art-critics, ecological thinkers) into the OOO research programme.