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 Abolition of Man
Without the natural law, "man's power over nature" becomes some men's power over other men — and the conditioners abolish the very humanity they claim to perfect
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Abolition of Man |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| 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 | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| 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 | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Abolition of Man
Real historical time of human cultural development. The argument is moral-cultural — what we are about to lose if we cut the tao away.
Space
The Abolition of Man
Standard background.
Matter
The Abolition of Man
Real and the locus of human existence; "Nature" is what is to be mastered or, alternatively, what has its own real moral order.
Observer
The Abolition of Man
The Lewisian observer is the morally embodied human person — embodied, plural, active in moral cultivation, situated in a real cosmic-moral order. Moral authority is tradition (the tao) accessible to all humans cross-culturally.
Energy
The Abolition of Man
Not directly engaged.
Information
The Abolition of Man
The tao — the natural moral law — is preserved across cultures and traditions. Personal information conserved in the standard Christian framework.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Lewis's argument relies on the broad cross-cultural convergence of moral systems (the appendix is the evidence). Critics (especially relativist anthropologists) have argued the convergence is overstated and the divergences understated. Modern natural-law theorists (Finnis, George) develop the argument more rigorously; Lewis's contribution is the compressed popular statement of the philosophical point.