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.
A Plea for Captain John Brown
A defense of John Brown after Harpers Ferry — the most politically incendiary of Thoreau's essays
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | A Plea for Captain John Brown (Mature) |
|---|---|
| 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 | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
A Plea for Captain John Brown
The specific autumn 1859 moment of the Brown raid; the longer historical arc Brown's action altered.
Space
A Plea for Captain John Brown
Harpers Ferry as the political-military space; Concord, Boston, Worcester as the lecture spaces.
Matter
A Plea for Captain John Brown
The embodied Brown facing execution; the bodies of the slaves the raid aimed to free.
Observer
A Plea for Captain John Brown
Thoreau as moral commentator; Brown as the radical-political actor.
Energy
A Plea for Captain John Brown
The political-spiritual energies the Brown raid mobilised; Thoreau's defense as further mobilisation.
Information
A Plea for Captain John Brown
The factual record of the raid (which Thoreau partly contests against Northern misrepresentation); the moral argument from Brown's example.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The shift from "Civil Disobedience" (1849, principled nonviolence) to "A Plea" (1859, defense of armed resistance) has been variously read by Thoreau scholars — some seeing continuity in defense of conscience, others seeing genuine evolution. The essay's relation to later debates on the ethics of armed resistance (Du Bois on John Brown, contemporary anti-fascist debates) remains active.