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.
The Maine Woods
Three Maine expeditions — Ktaadn, Chesuncook, the Allegash and East Branch — and the foundational American confrontation with the unmodified wilderness
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Maine Woods (Mature-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 | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Cosmic-ordering |
| 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.
Time
The Maine Woods
The three expeditions across a decade; the long natural-historical time of the Maine wilderness.
Space
The Maine Woods
Mount Katahdin, Chesuncook Lake, the Allegash and East Branch rivers — specific Maine geography.
Matter
The Maine Woods
The embodied expeditioners; the material wilderness — woods, mountains, rivers.
Observer
The Maine Woods
Thoreau as urban-Concord-philosopher confronting wilderness; Joe Polis as indigenous-knowing observer.
Energy
The Maine Woods
The elemental energies of wilderness; the human energies of expedition and travel.
Information
The Maine Woods
Natural-historical detail; ethnographic detail about indigenous knowledge.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Maine Woods' treatment of indigenous knowledge (Joe Polis) was substantial advance for nineteenth-century American writing but remains complicated by Thoreau's outsider position. The work's ecological-political readings have been generative for contemporary environmental thought.