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.
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Both |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Both |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Moral agency requires noumenal freedom against phenomenal temporal causation. Time itself is phenomenal.
Space
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Standard Kantian treatment as form of intuition.
Matter
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Sensible matter is the field of moral action; the noumenal self is non-spatial.
Observer
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
The Groundwork's observer is the rational agent — phenomenally embodied, noumenally free, plural in the kingdom of ends. Active in self-legislation. Moral authority is pure practical reason. Metaphysical agency is the personal God of practical reason's postulates.
Energy
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Not engaged.
Information
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
The categorical imperative is the substantival a priori principle of practical reason.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The relation between the Groundwork's three formulations of the categorical imperative has been disputed since the work's publication. Kant claims they are equivalent; modern scholarship has shown the equivalence is far from straightforward. Application of the universalisation test has long been criticised (starting with Hegel) as either trivially satisfiable or impossibly stringent.