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.
Maxims of Ptahhotep
Ma'at endures — the cosmic order of truth and justice as the foundation of moral life, inscribed for the instruction of a vizier's son
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Maxims of Ptahhotep |
|---|---|
| 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 | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | not engaged |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| Observer · Theological Method | N/A |
| Energy · Extent | not engaged |
| Energy · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Energy · Conservation | not engaged |
| Energy · Dispersibility | not engaged |
| Information · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | not engaged |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-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
Maxims of Ptahhotep
Ma'at endures "since the time of its creator" — eternal, unchanging, the ground of temporal order. Human time is cyclical: generations pass, sons succeed fathers, the same wisdom is transmitted again and again.
Space
Maxims of Ptahhotep
Space is the ordered Egyptian world: the court, the household, the Nile valley. The Maxims presuppose a substantival spatial reality in which right conduct operates.
Matter
Maxims of Ptahhotep
The Maxims address concrete material situations — meals, property, court proceedings — as the theatre of moral action. The material world is real and morally significant.
Observer
Maxims of Ptahhotep
The observer (the son being instructed) is embodied, socially situated, and morally responsible. Agency is passive in the sense that the correct stance is listening, deference, and alignment with ma'at — not autonomous moral innovation. Ma'at is the cosmic ordering principle.
Energy
Maxims of Ptahhotep
Energy is not a concept in the Maxims.
Information
Maxims of Ptahhotep
Wisdom is transmitted from father to son — the Maxims are themselves the medium of intergenerational information transfer. Personal information is not conserved beyond this-worldly reputation and legacy.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Maxims teach deference to the cosmic order (ma'at) while simultaneously offering practical advice for worldly success — getting ahead at court, managing subordinates, pleasing superiors. The tension between cosmic principle and courtly pragmatism is never resolved: is ma'at a transcendent moral law or a recipe for political survival? The Egyptian wisdom tradition itself oscillated between these poles for two millennia.