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.
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
The division of labour, the invisible hand, and the wealth of nations grounded in productive labour rather than gold
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (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 | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Immediate |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| 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
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Smith's framework is post-Newtonian, broadly realist about temporal succession. Real, substantival, linear, non-deterministic in the practical sphere — Smith's analysis of economic outcomes presupposes genuine human deliberation about means.
Space
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Geography matters in Smith's analysis — the location of markets, the role of navigation, the "great commerce" of town and country. Space is substantival, three-dimensional, locally interactive in the manner of eighteenth-century mechanical philosophy.
Matter
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Productive labour applied to material resources is the source of all wealth. Matter is real, conserved, and the substrate of economic activity. Smith is no idealist about economic phenomena.
Observer
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
The Smithian observer is the embodied human person — plural, active, self-interested but also capable of sympathy and moral judgement (Theory of Moral Sentiments). Knowledge is immediate (built from experience) and finite. The metaphysical agency is cosmic-ordering — the "invisible hand" suggests a providential ordering of the system that does not require explicit divine intervention. Moral authority is reason, embedded in the sympathies and judgements of the impartial spectator.
Energy
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Productive energy — labour applied to material transformation — is the implicit foundation of value. Conserved across the economic system; locally dissipative in production.
Information
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Prices in markets carry substantival informational content about relative scarcities and preferences — a doctrine later writers (Hayek, Sowell) would make explicit. Smith retains a robust Christian-deistic commitment to personal immortality.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The "Adam Smith Problem" — the apparent tension between the moral psychology of the 1759 Theory of Moral Sentiments (sympathy as the foundation of ethics) and the self-interest model of the 1776 Wealth of Nations — has been disputed by readers since the nineteenth century. Modern Smith scholarship (Raphael, Haakonssen, Hanley) reads the two works as complementary: the Wealth of Nations's self-interest is embedded in a moral framework the Theory of Moral Sentiments supplies, and Smith's own late revisions of the Theory show no retreat from its moral psychology.