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.
The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World
Putnam's 1999 Dewey Lectures — "natural realism" undoes the modern dichotomy between mind and world
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World (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 | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Singular |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| 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
The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World
The 1994 lectures; the 1999 published moment of mature Putnam.
Space
The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World
Columbia's Dewey Lectures setting; broader analytic-pragmatist conversation.
Matter
The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World
The directly perceived world — chairs, trees, persons — that natural realism takes as given.
Observer
The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World
The embodied perceiver as direct knower of the world.
Energy
The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World
The cognitive energies of direct perceptual engagement.
Information
The Threefold Cord: Mind, Body, and World
The directly perceived contents of the world.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Natural realism has been variously assessed — defenders see it as overcoming Cartesian-modern epistemology, critics worry it underestimates the genuine philosophical work performed by representational concepts.