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 Seven Storey Mountain
A modern Augustine's Confessions — Merton's 1948 narrative of his conversion to Catholicism and entry into the Trappist monastery at Gethsemani
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Seven Storey Mountain (Early (Merton's breakthrough book; the spiritual autobiography of his conversion)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| 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 | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Both |
| Observer · Number | Singular |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| 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 | 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 Seven Storey Mountain
The autobiographical time of the conversion narrative — from early life through searching to monastic vocation.
Space
The Seven Storey Mountain
The geographical spaces of Merton's life — France, England, New York, Kentucky's Gethsemani monastery.
Matter
The Seven Storey Mountain
The embodied life of the spiritual journey and the monastic vocation.
Observer
The Seven Storey Mountain
Merton himself as the singular first-person observer — embodied, narrating his conversion. Personal-providential God as framework.
Energy
The Seven Storey Mountain
The energies of spiritual transformation and monastic discipline.
Information
The Seven Storey Mountain
The personal-spiritual narrative preserved in autobiography; the Catholic-monastic tradition that shapes the framework.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The 1948 Merton of the Mountain has been sometimes read as a "before-Merton" — the subsequent Merton, with his ecumenical engagement, social-political prophecy, and Buddhist dialogue, is the "real" Merton. Merton himself in his 1966 introduction to a Japanese edition partially distanced himself from the Mountain's sometimes-strident Catholic apologetics. The relation between the Mountain's clear Catholic-monastic framework and Merton's later open-ended contemplative ecumenism is the central interpretive question.