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.
De Aeternitate Mundi
Siger's 1272 'De Aeternitate Mundi' — Aristotelian-Averroist eternity-of-the-world against Christian creation in time
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | De Aeternitate Mundi (Middle) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Finite |
| 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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Singular |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Limited |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| 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
De Aeternitate Mundi
1272. Siger was about 32 and a master of arts at Paris; the eternity-of-the-world controversy was at its height (Aquinas's 'De Aeternitate Mundi' is contemporaneous, and the 1277 Tempier condemnations would target the position five years later).
Space
De Aeternitate Mundi
Paris arts faculty — specifically the Rue du Fouarre, where the arts masters taught and the Averroist controversy was conducted. The Paris arts faculty's distinctive intellectual situation — teaching Aristotelian philosophy without the theological office to subordinate its conclusions to doctrine — gave rise to the controversy.
Matter
De Aeternitate Mundi
Short scholastic treatise (~40 pages in standard editions). Form is the medieval-academic quaestio: question stated, arguments for and against, Siger's determination.
Observer
De Aeternitate Mundi
Middle Siger. The observer-philosopher is the Parisian master of arts at the height of his teaching career, conducting Aristotelian-philosophical argumentation without the theological-doctrinal apparatus the theology faculty would deploy.
Energy
De Aeternitate Mundi
Radical-Aristotelian-philosophical energies. The treatise's central energy is the philosophical-autonomy claim: the arts faculty conducts philosophy on its own terms.
Information
De Aeternitate Mundi
Single short treatise. The famous closing formula — 'Speaking as a philosopher, this follows from Aristotle and his Commentator; as a Christian, I hold what the faith holds' — is the locus classicus of the so-called double-truth position.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Targeted in the 1277 Tempier condemnations; central to the medieval eternity-of-the-world controversy. Aquinas's response ('De Aeternitate Mundi', 1270) defends a more conciliatory position: philosophy can conclude that the eternity of the world is not impossible, while leaving the actual question to faith. Dante places Siger of Brabant in Paradise (Paradiso X) — a controversial placement given Siger's condemnation, signalling Dante's own philosophical sympathies.