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.
Rule of St Benedict
A school for the Lord's service — ora et labora as the balanced path to God
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Rule of St Benedict |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Both |
| 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 | not engaged |
| 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 | Mediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Tradition |
| 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 | 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
Rule of St Benedict
Both — God's eternity frames created time. The Rule sanctifies temporal life through the liturgy of the hours: time is linear, one-directional, and structured by the daily and annual liturgical cycle. Free will is presupposed: the monk chooses obedience at every moment.
Space
Rule of St Benedict
Finite and intensely local. Stabilitas loci (stability of place) is a vow: the monk commits to one monastery for life. The enclosure is a bounded sacred space within which all of life is ordered toward God.
Matter
Rule of St Benedict
Good, created, and instrumental to sanctification. Tools are treated "as if they were sacred vessels of the altar" (ch. 31). Manual labour is legislated. Matter is real, conserved, and valued as the medium of the spiritual life.
Observer
Rule of St Benedict
Embodied, active, plural monks in community. Knowledge is mediate — through scripture, the abbot, and tradition. The Rule addresses the whole person: body (labour, fasting), will (obedience, humility), and intellect (lectio divina). Personal agency under a personal God.
Energy
Rule of St Benedict
Finite human energy requiring rest, moderation, and balance. The Rule legislates hours of sleep, work, and prayer precisely because human energy is limited. No speculative physics.
Information
Rule of St Benedict
The Rule is an information-transmission system: lectio divina ensures reading; the scriptorium ensures copying; the abbot's teaching ensures oral transmission. Personal conservation through resurrection and divine judgement.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Rule's moderation is its genius and its problem: every monastic reform movement (Cluny, Citeaux, La Trappe) reads it as insufficiently rigorous and tightens it — only to discover that the original moderation was more sustainable. The Rule also concentrates authority in the abbot, creating a perennial tension between obedience and personal discernment.