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.
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
The solitary child who reasons his way from nature to God — the sufficiency of unaided intellect
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Hayy ibn Yaqzan |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Singular |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| 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 | Variable |
| Information · Granularity | not engaged |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
The Necessary Existent is eternal; the physical world emanates in a logically necessary, timeless process. The sublunary world unfolds in linear time. Deterministic: the emanation and Hayy's intellectual development are presented as the necessary consequence of reason operating on nature.
Space
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
Finite, Ptolemaic cosmos: Hayy deduces the concentric spheres by observing the heavens. The deserted island is a narrative device but also a philosophical condition — isolation from society is what makes the thought experiment work.
Matter
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
Hylomorphic: Hayy discovers matter and form through dissection and observation. Generation and corruption of sublunary matter; celestial matter is eternal. Conserved through transformation.
Observer
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
Singular: the entire story is about one observer. Hayy's solitude is essential — the claim is that a single rational soul, given nature, will necessarily reach philosophical truth. Embodied, active, immediate knowledge. Cosmic-ordering: the culmination is conjunction with the Active Intellect and participation in the necessary emanation.
Energy
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
Standard Avicennan framework: the celestial spheres transmit causal influence; the Active Intellect illuminates. Finite, conserved, irreversible in the downward direction.
Information
Hayy ibn Yaqzan
Intelligible forms in the Active Intellect are conserved. Hayy abstracts them through experience. Personal conservation is variable: the philosophical soul achieves conjunction; the masses on the inhabited island remain in symbolic understanding.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The story claims reason is universal and sufficient, but its conclusion is elitist: Hayy cannot communicate his truth to the masses and retreats to solitary contemplation. If philosophical truth is incommunicable, is it truly universal? The relation between the narrative frame (a story, communicated in language) and its content (a truth beyond language) is paradoxical.