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.
Éléments de la philosophie de Newton
Newton's natural philosophy — gravitation, optics, the calculus, the empirical method — explained for the educated French-reading public, against the entrenched Cartesianism of the Sorbonne
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | Éléments de la philosophie de Newton (Mid (the work that established Voltaire as a public intellectual of European reach)) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | 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 | Personal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Reason |
| 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
Éléments de la philosophie de Newton
Newtonian absolute time; the historical-political moment of the Cartesian/Newtonian battle in 1730s France.
Space
Éléments de la philosophie de Newton
Newtonian absolute space as the framework of natural philosophy.
Matter
Éléments de la philosophie de Newton
Particles obeying inverse-square gravitation; matter as Newton describes it.
Observer
Éléments de la philosophie de Newton
The educated French-reading public Voltaire aims to convert from Cartesianism to Newtonianism.
Energy
Éléments de la philosophie de Newton
Gravitational and other Newtonian forces; the institutional energies of the Cartesian establishment Voltaire opposes.
Information
Éléments de la philosophie de Newton
The Newtonian laws and the supporting experimental evidence as discrete propositional content.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
Voltaire's exposition was substantially correct but inevitably simplified — the technical mathematics required for serious Newtonian work was beyond most of his readers and beyond what the Éléments could provide. Émilie du Châtelet's translation of the Principia (published posthumously in 1759) supplied the technical companion. The work's polemical edge against Cartesianism was effective: by the 1750s, the French scientific establishment had substantially adopted Newtonianism.