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.
Our Knowledge of the Internal World
Stalnaker's 2008 Locke Lectures — self-knowledge through the same possible-worlds machinery as knowledge of the external world
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Our Knowledge of the Internal World (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
Our Knowledge of the Internal World
2006 Locke Lectures; 2008 publication. Stalnaker was 68 at publication.
Space
Our Knowledge of the Internal World
Oxford / MIT. The Locke Lectures are the most prestigious philosophical lecture series in the English-speaking world; the venue itself is significant.
Matter
Our Knowledge of the Internal World
Locke-Lecture monograph (~150 pages). Form is sustained philosophical argument across six chapters.
Observer
Our Knowledge of the Internal World
Late Stalnaker on the metaphysics of the introspective observer. The observer-philosopher engages David Chalmers's contemporary work on consciousness and the phenomenal-concept strategy.
Energy
Our Knowledge of the Internal World
Late-career systematic energies on philosophy of mind. The book extends the Stalnakerian possible-worlds programme into the philosophy of mind in a sustained way.
Information
Our Knowledge of the Internal World
Single book derived from a six-lecture series. The Chapters V-VI engagement with phenomenal concepts and Chalmers's two-dimensional semantics is the most contemporary-relevant material.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Late-Stalnaker application of the possible-worlds programme to the philosophy of mind. The engagement with Chalmers's two-dimensional semantics and phenomenal-concept strategy is one of the central contemporary debates between analytic-naturalist and dualist positions in philosophy of mind.