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.
Tool-Being
Objects withdraw — the founding manifesto of object-oriented ontology, against the anti-realism of the linguistic turn
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Tool-Being (Early (Harman's breakthrough work, derived from his 1999 DePaul PhD)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Mediated |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | N/A |
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Tool-Being
Standard physical time; objects persist through time without exhausting their reality in their temporal manifestations.
Space
Tool-Being
Standard substantival space.
Matter
Tool-Being
Substantival objects whose reality exceeds their accessible relational properties.
Observer
Tool-Being
Plural; humans are objects among objects. Mediated knowledge through "vicarious causation".
Energy
Tool-Being
Standard physics.
Information
Tool-Being
No personal afterlife in the framework.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Critics from the process tradition (Steven Shaviro) and from new materialism (Jane Bennett) have argued that Harman's objects are too withdrawn — too inert and isolated — to support the relational world we actually inhabit. Harman has refined his account of "vicarious causation" in subsequent work to address these critiques.