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 Savage Mind
The savage mind is not the European's primitive ancestor — Lévi-Strauss's 1962 sustained argument for the rational equality of "primitive" thought
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Savage Mind (Mid (the systematic statement of structural anthropology)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Both |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| 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 | 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 Savage Mind
Synchronic-structural time of the analyses; the diachronic time of historical-cultural development that Sartre emphasised.
Space
The Savage Mind
The cultural-anthropological space of diverse societies; the structural-formal space of underlying invariant patterns.
Matter
The Savage Mind
Material culture (totems, classifications, mythical narratives) as the concrete substrate of structural analysis.
Observer
The Savage Mind
The savage mind and the modern scientific mind as two modes of equally rational observation.
Energy
The Savage Mind
The structural-formal energies of myth and classification.
Information
The Savage Mind
The structural patterns preserved across cultural diversity; the bricoleur's creative reorganisation of available materials.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Lévi-Strauss / Sartre exchange of the early 1960s is the major French intellectual-historical controversy of the period. Subsequent critique of structuralism (Derrida, Foucault, broader post-structuralism) has substantially modified the framework. Post-colonial engagement has complicated the colonial-anthropological framing.