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.
Essays, Moral and Political
Hume's 1741-42 'Essays, Moral and Political' — his first major essay-form intervention in public-philosophical writing
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Essays, Moral and Political (Middle) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | 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 | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Immediate |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| 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 | Relational |
| 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
Essays, Moral and Political
1741-42 first editions; continuously revised through 1777. Hume was 30-31 at first publication, 66 at death.
Space
Essays, Moral and Political
Edinburgh / Ninewells (Hume's family estate). The essays were composed during Hume's transition from the philosophical project of the Treatise to his career as essayist-historian.
Matter
Essays, Moral and Political
Essay collection (~600 pages in the definitive Liberty Fund edition). Form is essayistic in the Addisonian-Spectator tradition.
Observer
Essays, Moral and Political
Middle Hume. The observer is Hume in the post-Treatise period reorienting his philosophical project toward the broader educated public.
Energy
Essays, Moral and Political
Public-philosophical essay energies. The essays were Hume's most commercially successful publications and the principal source of his early reputation.
Information
Essays, Moral and Political
Multi-essay volume. The standard-of-taste essay, the original-contract essay, and the populousness essay are the most-cited individual entries.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The principal vehicle through which contemporary readers encountered Hume — and the foundation of his fame as essayist before his fame as philosopher. The political-economic essays (collected in 1752 as Political Discourses) directly influenced Adam Smith and the broader Scottish-Enlightenment political economy tradition.