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.
On Nature (fragments)
Nature was fitted together from unlimiteds and limiters — the first mathematical cosmology, with the Earth in motion
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | On Nature (fragments) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Cyclical |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Curved |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Mediated |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
On Nature (fragments)
Cosmic time is cyclical — defined by the revolution of the ten bodies around the central fire. The "great year" is the period of cosmic return. Time is substantival, continuous, and deterministic.
Space
On Nature (fragments)
Space is finite and spherical: the cosmos is bounded by the sphere of fixed stars with the central fire at its heart. The Earth moves — it is not the centre. Space has real curvature.
Matter
On Nature (fragments)
Matter is relational: things are "fitted together" from limiters and unlimiteds through harmonia. What a thing is, is its ratio, not its stuff. The most radical mathematical ontology before Plato.
Observer
On Nature (fragments)
The observer grasps reality through number. "All things that are known have number" (B4) — to know is to know the mathematical structure. The soul transmigrates, carrying its knowledge. The cosmic principle is impersonal mathematical necessity.
Energy
On Nature (fragments)
The central fire is the energetic heart of the cosmos. Energy is relational (defined by the interaction of limiters and unlimiteds) and conserved within the closed system. Cyclical cosmology implies reversibility.
Information
On Nature (fragments)
Number is the fundamental informational unit — substantival, discrete, and conserved. "It is not possible for anything to be thought of or known without number" (B4). Personal information is conserved through transmigration.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The tension between mathematical abstraction and physical realism: limiters and unlimiteds are abstract principles, but the central fire, the counter-earth, and the ten bodies are concrete physical posits. Is the cosmos fundamentally mathematical or fundamentally physical? Philolaus holds both, and Plato inherits the ambiguity.