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 Social Contract
"Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains" — Rousseau's account of legitimate authority as grounded in the general will of the people
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Social Contract (Late (after the two Discourses; the political conclusion of Rousseau's mature thought)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Both |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| 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 Social Contract
Modern political time as the medium of the social contract; the foundational moment of collective constitution and the ongoing temporal expression of the general will.
Space
The Social Contract
The territorial space of the political community — small enough to allow direct collective expression of the general will.
Matter
The Social Contract
Embodied citizens whose physical lives are shaped by the laws expressing the general will.
Observer
The Social Contract
The citizen as the central political observer — plural, embodied, active in collective self-government. Personal-providential God in the background through civil religion.
Energy
The Social Contract
The political energy of the general will expressed in legislative assembly.
Information
The Social Contract
The laws of the polity as the preserved information of the general will; the body politic's collective memory.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The general will doctrine has been read both as the foundation of democratic legitimacy and as the rationale for totalitarian "forcing" of citizens to be free (Talmon's "Origins of Totalitarian Democracy"). The relation between Rousseau's individualist anthropology (the natural goodness of pre-social man) and his collectivist politics (the body politic absorbs individual wills) is the classic interpretive problem. Contemporary deliberative-democratic theory (Habermas, Cohen) has substantially rehabilitated the general will doctrine in deliberative-procedural terms.