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.
Two Treatises of Government
Government rests on the consent of the governed — and when it fails to protect life, liberty, and property, the people may resist
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Two Treatises of Government (Late) |
|---|---|
| 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 | 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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| 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
Two Treatises of Government
Real historical time is the medium of political development. The right of revolution presupposes real future-open political possibility.
Space
Two Treatises of Government
The territorial state is the natural unit of political community. Substantival, finite, local.
Matter
Two Treatises of Government
Property in the state of nature begins with mixing one's labour with material things. Matter is real, substantival.
Observer
Two Treatises of Government
The Lockean observer is the embodied free individual, plural, active in political life. Moral authority is reason (natural law). The metaphysical agency is personal — God as creator and proprietor of persons.
Energy
Two Treatises of Government
Not engaged philosophically.
Information
Two Treatises of Government
The covenant of consent generates legitimate political authority. Personal information conserved across death (standard Christian framework).
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Locke's defence of property in the Second Treatise §§25–51 — including its extension to the Americas under the "vacant land" theory — has been criticised by postcolonial scholars as ideologically motivated. The relation between Locke's political philosophy and his personal investment in the Royal African Company (the slave trade) is the subject of ongoing scholarly debate (Jennifer Welchman, Brad Hinshelwood).