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.
Context and Content
Stalnaker's 1999 essays on intentionality, context, and the structure of belief and assertion
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Context and Content (Mid-to-late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | NDet |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Curved |
| 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 | 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
Context and Content
1999. Stalnaker was 59 and at MIT (his institutional base since 1988).
Space
Context and Content
MIT philosophy department.
Matter
Context and Content
Fifteen-essay collection (~430 pages). Form is monographic-essay: each essay independent but each carrying forward the broader Stalnakerian programme.
Observer
Context and Content
Mid-to-late Stalnaker. The observer-philosopher is positioned at the maturity of his philosophical-linguistic programme.
Energy
Context and Content
Synthesising energies of a mid-career systematic theorist. The new introductions explain how the essays fit together philosophically.
Information
Context and Content
Single English-language essay collection. The 'Assertion' paper (1978) and 'On What's in the Head' (1989) are among the most-cited individual entries.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Mature statement of the Stalnakerian philosophy-of-language programme. The common-ground model of conversation (from 'Assertion') has shaped formal pragmatics and dynamic semantics across linguistics and philosophy of language.