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.
An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
Latour's 2013 anthropological-philosophical synthesis — the multiple modes of existence of the moderns
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | An Inquiry into Modes of Existence (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Non-Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Bi-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Non-Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Variable |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Non-Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Community |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Variable |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Variable |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Variable |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
The 1990s-2010s research programme of which the book is the synthesis.
Space
An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
The mode-specific spaces in which different truth-claims are pursued.
Matter
An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
The mode-specific materials whose existence-conditions differ across the fifteen modes.
Observer
An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
The mode-attentive anthropologist of the moderns as proper observer.
Energy
An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
The intellectual-institutional energies of late-Latourian synthesis.
Information
An Inquiry into Modes of Existence
The mode-by-mode catalogue of truth- and felicity-conditions.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Modes-of-Existence framework has been variously assessed — defenders see proper pluralist-metaphysical synthesis, critics worry about the rigour of the fifteen-mode catalogue.