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Work #872 · Mid

Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau
1849 (as Resistance to Civil Government in Aesthetic Papers); retitled Civil Disobedience 1866 (posthumous) · English
Political-philosophical essay · Nineteenth-century American transcendentalism / political dissent

Thoreau's 1849 founding essay on principled non-violent resistance to unjust government

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Civil Disobedience (Mid)
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 Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Single
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Theistic
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.

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Time

Civil Disobedience

The historical moment of slavery and the Mexican-American War.

✦

Space

Civil Disobedience

Concord, Massachusetts, and the jail cell.

◉

Matter

Civil Disobedience

The embodied resisting body.

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Observer

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau the dissenting citizen.

⚡

Energy

Civil Disobedience

Energies of principled resistance.

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Information

Civil Disobedience

The principled argument for non-cooperation.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau's Civil Disobedience: founding work of the modern theory of civil disobedience; central reference for Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.