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.
Ways a World Might Be
Stalnaker's 2003 essays on modal metaphysics — moderate modal actualism against Lewisian modal realism
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Ways a World Might Be (Late-middle) |
|---|---|
| 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
Ways a World Might Be
2003 publication; essays composed 1976-2001. Stalnaker was 63.
Space
Ways a World Might Be
MIT philosophy department.
Matter
Ways a World Might Be
Fifteen-essay collection (~270 pages). Form is monographic-essay: each essay treats one technical-philosophical question within the broader modal-metaphysical programme.
Observer
Ways a World Might Be
Late-middle Stalnaker. The observer is the moderate modal actualist defending a deflationary-realist position against both Lewisian modal realism and modal anti-realism.
Energy
Ways a World Might Be
Synthesising-systematic energies. The volume positions Stalnaker's distinctive modal-metaphysical position against the major contemporary alternatives (Lewis, Chalmers).
Information
Ways a World Might Be
Single book of fifteen essays. The two-dimensional-semantics engagement with Chalmers ('Conceptual Truth and Metaphysical Necessity') is the most-discussed contemporary entry.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Mature statement of the Stalnakerian moderate-actualist alternative to Lewisian modal realism. The two-dimensional-semantics debate (Stalnaker vs. Chalmers) is one of the central contemporary debates in modal metaphysics and philosophy of mind; the Stalnaker position has been continuously productive in analytic-metaphysics literature.