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.
Theses on Feuerbach
Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Theses on Feuerbach (Early) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Both |
| 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 | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Constructed |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-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
Theses on Feuerbach
Time is the medium of historical development. Practice — productive activity over time — is the criterion of truth.
Space
Theses on Feuerbach
Standard background.
Matter
Theses on Feuerbach
Matter is real and the substrate of practical activity. The new materialism Marx proposes is practical-revolutionary rather than contemplative.
Observer
Theses on Feuerbach
The Marxian observer is the embodied class-positioned human; "essence" is the ensemble of social relations. Active in productive practice.
Energy
Theses on Feuerbach
Productive human activity is the energetic principle.
Information
Theses on Feuerbach
Knowledge is verified in practice. No metaphysical guarantees, no providence. Personal information not philosophically privileged.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Theses' brevity and aphoristic form allow multiple readings. Engels's 1888 edits — softening some formulations — have been debated. The relation between the Eleventh Thesis (change the world) and the rest of Marx's theoretical work (Capital, the Grundrisse) has been the central interpretive question: is theoretical work itself a form of revolutionary practice, or do the two stand in tension?