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.
Meno
Can virtue be taught? — and the slave-boy who, asked questions, recovers geometric truth he never learned
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Meno (Early) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Cyclical |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Disembodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| 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
Meno
The soul exists before and after this life; reincarnation is the background framework.
Space
Meno
Not engaged.
Matter
Meno
The slave-boy's discovery is mathematical, not material — emphasising the priority of the intelligible.
Observer
Meno
The Meno's soul is plural empirically but bears eternal truths from prior contemplation. Knowledge is total in principle (the soul has seen everything); learning is recovery.
Energy
Meno
Not engaged.
Information
Meno
The Forms are substantival informational structures accessible to soul. Personal information conserved across reincarnations.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Whether the recollection doctrine is meant as literal pre-existence or as a metaphor for some other epistemic capacity has been disputed since antiquity. The slave-boy passage has been read as a genuine argument for innatism (Chomsky), as a faulty argument that mistakes guidance for recollection (most empirical epistemologists), and as a literary illustration whose philosophical work is more limited than Plato suggests.