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.
Upheavals of Thought
Emotions are not blind tremors but cognitive judgements of value — they have intelligence and require it
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Upheavals of Thought (Late-mature (Nussbaum's magnum opus, eight years in the writing after the Gifford Lectures)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| 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
Upheavals of Thought
The temporal trajectory of the emotional life — grief unfolds over time, love deepens through stages, compassion can be cultivated.
Space
Upheavals of Thought
The space of the individual life and its political-social context; capabilities-approach extensions are concerned with the spatial-institutional conditions under which emotions can flourish.
Matter
Upheavals of Thought
The embodied animal whose emotions involve bodily expression and biological substrate — Nussbaum does not deny the bodily but argues the cognitive content is primary.
Observer
Upheavals of Thought
The agent who has emotions and can reflect on them — emotions are revisable upon reflection, even if not directly subject to will.
Energy
Upheavals of Thought
The dynamic energies of the emotions themselves — Nussbaum compares the music of Mahler's second and third symphonies for their phenomenology of grief and joy.
Information
Upheavals of Thought
The cognitive content of emotion — propositional, intentional, evaluable for truth and appropriateness.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Non-cognitivists (Robinson, Goldie, Prinz) reject the strong cognitive theory: not every emotion has a clear propositional content, and bodily-feeling theories of emotion (Damasio, James-Lange) capture data Nussbaum's account struggles with. Critics on the Aristotelian side (Sherman) accept the broad framework but think Nussbaum gives too much to Stoicism. The book's long treatments of music and literature divide readers — generative for some, distracting for others.