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.
Sic et Non
By doubting we come to inquiry, by inquiry to truth — the dialectical engine of the scholastic revolution
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Sic et Non |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| 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 | Personal |
| 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 | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | not engaged |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Sic et Non
The work operates within the standard medieval Christian temporal framework: created time, linear history, eschatological horizon. The ontology of time is not a topic of the Sic et Non, but the method presupposes that the Fathers wrote in specific historical contexts — an implicitly historicist awareness.
Space
Sic et Non
Not addressed directly. The inherited Ptolemaic-Aristotelian finite cosmos is the background assumption. Abelard's interests in this work are purely theological and methodological.
Matter
Sic et Non
Not a central topic. The background metaphysics is the standard medieval hylomorphic framework: matter is created, real, and ordered by divine wisdom.
Observer
Sic et Non
The implied observer is the rational theologian who applies dialectical method to authoritative texts. Active, critical, embodied. The emphasis on inquiry and doubt makes the observer the arbiter of textual meaning — a proto-modern stance. Plural observers under a personal God.
Energy
Sic et Non
Not addressed. The standard medieval framework applies: finite, conserved, irreversible.
Information
Sic et Non
The Sic et Non is centrally concerned with the transmission, corruption, and recovery of information in authoritative texts. Information is conserved in principle but subject to loss and distortion in practice — hence the need for critical method. Personal conservation follows from the Christian doctrine of the soul's immortality.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Sic et Non's great provocation is that it displays contradictions without resolving them. Abelard's defenders saw this as pedagogical; his critics saw it as subversive — an implicit argument that the Fathers were unreliable. The work raises but does not answer the question of what happens when dialectical resolution fails: is there a residual authority of tradition that trumps reason, or does reason always have the last word? Later scholasticism would answer differently at different moments.