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 Theory of Moral Sentiments
How sympathy and the impartial spectator construct moral judgment — the moral-philosophical foundation underneath the economics of The Wealth of Nations
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Early-to-late (he revised it throughout his life)) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Both |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Experience |
| 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 | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Continuous |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Newtonian background time; moral life unfolds in ordinary uni-directional history.
Space
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Newtonian background space; the social space of sympathy and the impartial spectator is the relevant "space" of moral life.
Matter
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Embodied human life in a material world; passions and sentiments have a bodily basis.
Observer
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
The Smithian observer is the sympathetic-imaginative agent, capable of taking up the impartial spectator 's standpoint. Plural, embodied, both active and passive in moral life.
Energy
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
The energies of moral life — the passions — are natural human capacities to be cultivated and governed.
Information
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Moral information is preserved through the social transmission of approbation and disapprobation; personal information of conscience is preserved through self-examination.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The relation between the Theory of Moral Sentiments (grounded in sympathy and other-regard) and the Wealth of Nations (grounded in self-interest and the invisible hand) is the famous "Adam Smith Problem." Modern scholarship (Otteson, Hanley, Rasmussen) has largely shown the two works to be compatible parts of a single project, with moral sentiments providing the framework within which commercial self-interest can function properly. The 6th-edition additions on the corruption of moral sentiments by admiration of wealth and power make this compatibility clearer.