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.
Theaetetus
What is knowledge? — three definitions (perception, true belief, true belief with logos) examined and found inadequate; the dialogue ends in aporia
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Theaetetus (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 | 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 | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Both |
| 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
Theaetetus
Time is presupposed but not directly engaged. The wax tablet and aviary models give temporal accounts of memory and recollection.
Space
Theaetetus
Not engaged.
Matter
Theaetetus
Heraclitean flux is engaged via Protagoras — the world of perceptible things is in constant change, against which the dialogue seeks stable knowledge.
Observer
Theaetetus
The Platonic observer of the Theaetetus is the rational soul seeking knowledge. Active, plural at the empirical level, capable of knowledge in principle through dialectic.
Energy
Theaetetus
Not engaged.
Information
Theaetetus
The Forms remain the substantival informational background, even though the dialogue ends without positive doctrine. Personal information conserved (the Platonic immortal soul).
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The dialogue's aporetic ending — three definitions tried and rejected — has been read in opposite ways: as Platonic Socratic humility, or as a positive signal that knowledge requires the Forms (which the dialogue presupposes without explicitly invoking). Modern epistemology (Gettier and the post-Gettier literature) treats the JTB analysis as a real philosophical position, not just a refuted definition.