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.
Viṃśatikā
Vasubandhu's 4th-5th century 'Twenty Verses on Vijñaptimātra' — defending Yogācāra mind-only against realist objections
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Viṃśatikā (Mature (post-conversion to Mahāyāna)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Cyclical |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Finite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Space · Curvature | Undefined |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Non-local |
| Matter · Extent | Finite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Matter · Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Non-local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Space Instance | Multiple |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Immediate |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Disembodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Revelation |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Finite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Emergent |
| Energy · Conservation | Non-conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| 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
Viṃśatikā
c. 4th-5th century (Vasubandhu's traditional dates are 4th-5th c., but scholarly opinion varies). The Viṃśatikā postdates Vasubandhu's conversion to Mahāyāna Yogācāra.
Space
Viṃśatikā
Gandhāra / north India — the geographical-cultural area where Vasubandhu's mature Yogācāra work was conducted.
Matter
Viṃśatikā
Sanskrit verse-treatise (22 verses) with prose auto-commentary (vṛtti). Total length ~30 pages in standard editions.
Observer
Viṃśatikā
Mature post-conversion Vasubandhu. The observer is the Yogācāra philosopher defending consciousness-only against realist critics.
Energy
Viṃśatikā
Yogācāra-philosophical energies. The treatise is the most concentrated single defence of Vijñaptimātra in Vasubandhu's corpus.
Information
Viṃśatikā
Single short treatise (20 verses + vṛtti). The dream-waking parallel and the shared-karma response to the inter-subjective-agreement objection are the most-cited individual arguments.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Founding Yogācāra-idealist defence; paired with Triṃśikā as Vasubandhu's two principal mind-only works. The pair shaped the entire subsequent Yogācāra tradition (Sthiramati, Dharmapāla, Xuanzang) and were transmitted into East Asian Buddhism (the Faxiang/Hossō schools) as the foundational Yogācāra source-texts.