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 Subjection of Women
The legal subordination of one sex to the other is wrong in itself, and one of the chief hindrances to human improvement
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Subjection of Women (Late) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Immediate |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| 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 | 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
The Subjection of Women
Real historical time of women's subjection and the prospect of its abolition. Reform is possible and historically delayed.
Space
The Subjection of Women
Real social spaces — the household, the workplace, the political assembly — in which women's subordination is enforced.
Matter
The Subjection of Women
Real embodied human life is the substrate of flourishing — and women have been systematically denied access to its full development.
Observer
The Subjection of Women
The Millian observer is the rational human person whose flourishing requires the equal flourishing of all. Embodied, plural, active in political reform.
Energy
The Subjection of Women
Not engaged.
Information
The Subjection of Women
Real knowledge about women has been distorted by the conditions of their subjection. Personal information not philosophically privileged.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Subjection of Women retains some features of Mill's broader liberal individualism that later feminism (especially second-wave) has criticised: the somewhat abstract treatment of "women" as a category, the assumption that male achievement is the standard of human achievement, the relatively limited engagement with race and class differences among women. The role of Harriet Taylor Mill in the work's composition has been the subject of substantial scholarly reconstruction.