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.
Mencius
Human nature is fundamentally good — the four sprouts of compassion, shame, deference, and judgement need only cultivation
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Mencius |
|---|---|
| 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 | 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 | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| 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 | 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
Mencius
Time is the medium of moral cultivation; the four sprouts need years to develop into stable virtues. Heaven's mandate operates through history. Free in the moral domain; providential at the cosmic level.
Space
Mencius
The state is the natural sphere of political life; the family the natural sphere of moral cultivation. Substantival, real.
Matter
Mencius
Material flourishing matters: Mencius repeatedly criticises rulers for taxing the people into poverty. Substantival, real, locally interactive.
Observer
Mencius
The Mencian observer is embodied, plural, profoundly relational. Moral nature is total in principle (everyone has the four sprouts); cultivation makes it actual. Moral authority is tradition; Heaven provides the cosmic ordering.
Energy
Mencius
Qi (vital energy) is treated significantly in Book 2A.2 — Mencius's famous account of "flood-like qi" is one of the earliest sophisticated treatments of moral-energetic cultivation.
Information
Mencius
The cultural tradition preserves practical wisdom; Heaven's pattern is the substantival cosmic information. Personal information is not conserved across death; Mencius shares Confucius's reticence.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Mencius's claim that human nature is good was immediately contested by Xunzi (next entry). The Neo-Confucian synthesis (Zhu Xi) made Mencius orthodox; Wang Yangming later complicated the position by emphasising the active role of the moral will. The relation between innate moral capacity and the need for sustained cultivation has been the central Confucian dispute ever since.