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.
Veritatis Splendor
The splendour of truth shines in every action of the human being who is open to truth — moral truth has objective foundations, and the freedom that severs from truth becomes its own corruption
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Veritatis Splendor (Mature) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Both |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| 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 | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Veritatis Splendor
The historical-pastoral moment of 1993 — three decades after Vatican II, the post-Cold War moral-cultural situation.
Space
Veritatis Splendor
The global Catholic Church as the institutional space; the secular world to which the encyclical also speaks.
Matter
Veritatis Splendor
The embodied human person whose moral acts are the proper object of moral theology.
Observer
Veritatis Splendor
The Christian moral agent whose conscience the encyclical aims to form; the moral theologian whose method it corrects.
Energy
Veritatis Splendor
The grace through which moral truth becomes practicable; the cultural energies the encyclical resists.
Information
Veritatis Splendor
The 183 paragraphs of teaching; the systematic-theological framework.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Veritatis Splendor was sharply contested by progressive Catholic moral theologians (Häring, Curran, the proportionalist school) who saw it as an over-reaction to post-Vatican II developments; conservative readers welcomed it as a long-needed clarification. The encyclical's lasting influence has been substantial — it shaped two generations of Catholic moral theology — though its specific positions on intrinsically evil acts continue to be debated.