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.
Pursuit of Truth
Quine's 1990 short late synthesis — his philosophy in 100 compressed pages
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Pursuit of Truth (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Curved |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Pursuit of Truth
1990 first edition; 1992 revised second. Quine was 82 at first publication.
Space
Pursuit of Truth
Harvard — Quine's institutional base since 1948.
Matter
Pursuit of Truth
Short late-career synthesis (~110 pages). Form is sustained philosophical essay with internal section headings (rather than full chapters).
Observer
Pursuit of Truth
Late Quine. The observer-philosopher is the senior figure of analytic philosophy looking back across a forty-year programme.
Energy
Pursuit of Truth
Synthesising-distilling energies. The book's distinctive achievement is the compression of forty years of philosophical work into a single short volume.
Information
Pursuit of Truth
Single ~100-page volume. The six-chapter structure mirrors the principal Quinean themes.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Quine's compressed late synthesis — the most accessible single-volume entry to his philosophy. Continuously used as the standard short introduction to Quine; the revised 1992 edition's addendum is also widely read.