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.
Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
Lewis's 1999 collection — Humean supervenience, knowledge by acquaintance, properties as universals
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | 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 | Mediated |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
1999. Lewis was 58, two years before his October 2001 death from diabetes complications.
Space
Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
Princeton — Lewis's institutional base from 1970 until his death.
Matter
Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
Single volume of essays (~450 pages). The papers span 1980-1999.
Observer
Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
Late Lewis. The observer-philosopher is positioned at the close of a long career, organising his decisive metaphysical-epistemological work for the first time in a single accessible collection.
Energy
Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
Synthesising energies. Lewis added brief introductions to each section explaining his retrospective view of how the papers fit together.
Information
Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology
Cambridge Collected Papers, vol. 2. Contains the principal late-Lewisian statements on universals, chance, causation, knowledge, and Humean supervenience.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Principal reference volume for Lewis's metaphysics and epistemology. The Humean-supervenience thesis ('all there is to the world is a vast mosaic of local matters of particular fact') has been continuously productive and contested; the New Work paper on sparse universals shaped subsequent debates over natural properties; the Principal Principle paper founded modern philosophy of objective chance.