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.
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
Smith's 1795 posthumous essays — including the early History of Astronomy, a major philosophy-of-science work
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Essays on Philosophical Subjects (Posthumous) |
|---|---|
| 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 | 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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| 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 | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
Composed across 1750s-1780s; 1795 posthumous publication.
Space
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
Edinburgh (Smith's final residence — he had returned from his Glasgow professorship to Edinburgh in 1778 as Commissioner of Customs).
Matter
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
Posthumous essay collection (~400 pages in the Glasgow Edition). Form is varied: long historical-philosophical essay (Astronomy), shorter companion essays, brief notes.
Observer
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
Posthumous Smith. The observer-philosopher is the author who had ordered most of his manuscripts burned but specifically requested these saved.
Energy
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
Posthumous-synthetic energies. The essays gather material Smith had been working on for decades but had not published.
Information
Essays on Philosophical Subjects
Single posthumous volume. The History of Astronomy is the most-cited single essay.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Smith's most important non-economic / non-ethical philosophical work, including the early History of Astronomy. The History of Astronomy has been continuously cited in philosophy of science as a major early-modern statement; the imaginative-aesthetic theory of scientific theory-change anticipates aspects of later philosophy of science (especially Kuhn's gestalt-shift account in Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962).