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.
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
Opposing every argument with one of equal force — the method of equipollence and the tranquillity that follows suspension
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Outlines of Pyrrhonism |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | not engaged |
| Time · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Time · Grain | not engaged |
| Time · Freedom | not engaged |
| Time · Traversability | not engaged |
| Time · Dimensionality | not engaged |
| Time · Direction | not engaged |
| Space · Extent | not engaged |
| Space · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Space · Curvature | not engaged |
| Space · Dimensionality | not engaged |
| Space · Locality | not engaged |
| Matter · Extent | not engaged |
| Matter · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Matter · Conservation | not engaged |
| Matter · Dimensionality | not engaged |
| Matter · Locality | not engaged |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Partial |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Passive |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Experience |
| Observer · Theological Method | N/A |
| Energy · Extent | not engaged |
| Energy · Ontological Status | not engaged |
| Energy · Conservation | not engaged |
| Energy · Dispersibility | not engaged |
| Information · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Non-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
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
The sceptic suspends judgment on the nature of time. Book III arguments show that time cannot coherently be said to be limited or unlimited, divisible or indivisible. "We are unable to say whether time is real or unreal." (III.136–150, paraphrase)
Space
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
The same treatment applies to place and void: arguments for and against cancel out. "Some say place exists, some deny it — we suspend judgment." (III.119–135, paraphrase)
Matter
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
The ten modes show that the qualities we perceive in matter depend on the perceiver. "We cannot say what the external object is like in its nature, but only how it appears." (I.59)
Observer
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
The sceptical observer is embodied, passive (yields to appearances without asserting truth), plural, and operates within the limits of immediate experience. "The sceptic does not dogmatise … going by the guidance of nature, the constraint of feelings, the tradition of laws and customs, and the instruction of the arts." (I.23–24)
Energy
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
Causation, motion, and force are subjected to the sceptical method: arguments for their reality are matched by arguments against. "If cause exists, it is either corporeal or incorporeal … but each has been disputed." (III.13–29, paraphrase)
Information
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
Information is emergent and non-conserved. The sceptic makes no claim that knowledge accumulates. Suspension of judgment is the dissolution of all doctrinal content. "We say the honey appears sweet but we do not affirm that it is sweet." (I.20)
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The self-referential problem: Sextus's own method is apparently a doctrine — "oppose every argument with one of equal force" — which should itself be subject to sceptical opposition. His answer (the sceptical arguments "cancel themselves along with the things they are applied to, as purgative drugs expel themselves along with the humours," I.206) is elegant but perhaps circular. The deeper tension: the sceptic claims tranquillity follows suspension, but this causal claim about a psychological outcome is itself a dogmatic assertion.