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.
De Cive
The state of nature is war; the social contract creates sovereign authority; the duty of religion is consistent with civil peace
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | De Cive (Early) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | 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 | 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 | — |
| 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 | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
De Cive
Time is real; political institutions endure across time and require maintenance. Deterministic in the compatibilist sense.
Space
De Cive
Standard post-Galilean substantival space.
Matter
De Cive
Bodies in motion; the only real substance. Hobbesian materialism is consistent across De Cive and Leviathan.
Observer
De Cive
The Hobbesian observer is the embodied individual driven by fear of death and desire for power. Active in self-preservation; plural in society; no personal metaphysical agency in the working philosophy.
Energy
De Cive
Mechanical motion is the energetic substrate; conservation of quantity of motion is the operative principle.
Information
De Cive
Names rightly ordered are the substantival informational currency. Personal information not conserved across death in any robust sense.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
De Cive's relation to Leviathan: substantially the same argument, but De Cive omits the elaborate philosophical-anthropological framework of Leviathan I, making it more compressed and arguably more accessible. The work was widely read on the Continent before Leviathan made Hobbes notorious.