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 Demon-Haunted World
Sagan's 1995 defence of scientific rationality against pseudoscience — the "candle in the dark" of disciplined inquiry
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Demon-Haunted 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 | Plural |
| 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 | Variable |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Demon-Haunted World
The 1995 late-Sagan contemporary moment of mid-1990s American scientific-political setting.
Space
The Demon-Haunted World
The American (and broader Western) public-intellectual setting Sagan addresses.
Matter
The Demon-Haunted World
The embodied democratic public whose rationality the book addresses.
Observer
The Demon-Haunted World
Sagan as proper-scientific-public-intellectual observer.
Energy
The Demon-Haunted World
The political-intellectual energies of the scientific-rationalist defence.
Information
The Demon-Haunted World
The methodological and political-philosophical content of the late-Sagan synthesis.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Demon-Haunted World has been universally praised by scientific-rationalist readers; religious-conservative and post-modern critics have variously contested its strong scientific-rationalist framework.