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.
The Natural History of Religion
Religion arose not from rational argument but from fear of natural events — and polytheism, not monotheism, is the natural human starting-point
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Natural History of Religion (Late) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Experience |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-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
The Natural History of Religion
Real historical time of religious development. Polytheism precedes monotheism, not the other way around.
Space
The Natural History of Religion
Standard background.
Matter
The Natural History of Religion
Standard naturalist materialist background.
Observer
The Natural History of Religion
The Humean observer of religion is the philosophical-anthropological investigator examining the natural human propensities that generate religious belief. No metaphysical agency posited.
Energy
The Natural History of Religion
Standard background.
Information
The Natural History of Religion
Religious belief is real social-cultural information produced by natural human propensities, not revelation from a transcendent source. Personal information not conserved across death.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Natural History's claim that polytheism is the natural starting-point of religion has been disputed on anthropological grounds (Andrew Lang's "Making of Religion" 1898 argued for a "high god" hypothesis compatible with primitive monotheism). Modern cognitive science of religion has partly vindicated and partly modified Hume's naturalistic framework.