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.
Abhidharmakośa
The systematic catalogue of dharmas — moments of experience as the irreducible elements of reality
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Abhidharmakośa |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Time · Grain | Discrete |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Cyclical |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Space · Curvature | Undefined |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Matter · Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Total |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | None |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Scripture |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Energy · Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Irreversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Relational |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Non-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
Abhidharmakośa
Time is discrete in the strong Abhidharmic sense — an indefinitely fine succession of momentary dharmas. The doctrine of momentariness (kṣaṇikatva) is one of the Kośa's central contributions. Saṃsāra is cyclic and unbeginningless.
Space
Abhidharmakośa
Space is one of the unconditioned dharmas, treated as a real relational structure within which conditioned dharmas arise.
Matter
Abhidharmakośa
Material atoms (paramāṇu) are the basic material building blocks — momentary, indivisible, relational. Vasubandhu critiques the atomist position from a Yogācāra direction in his later work.
Observer
Abhidharmakośa
There is no enduring self — only a stream of momentary mental dharmas. Conventional persons are real for practical purposes; ultimate analysis shows them to be the bundle. Active in the path, plural in the conventional sense.
Energy
Abhidharmakośa
Karmic momentum is the central energetic principle, irreversible until extinguished by liberation.
Information
Abhidharmakośa
Karmic-saṃskāric patterns carry across lives; this is conventional personal-information conservation. At the level of the dharmas there is no substantival information, only the patterned arising.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Vasubandhu's own apparent conversion from Sarvāstivāda to Yogācāra has been disputed by some recent scholars (Frauwallner argued for two Vasubandhus; most contemporary scholarship treats them as one). The Kośa's realism about momentary dharmas is in tension with the Madhyamaka critique of intrinsic nature; the long history of inter-school dispute fills the commentarial tradition.