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Work #923 · Late (Wollstonecraft's last completed major non-fiction work, three years before her death)

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

Mary Wollstonecraft
1794 (Vol. I only — the projected continuation was never written) · English
Historical-philosophical narrative · British radical Enlightenment / republicanism

The principles of 1789 are sound — the Terror is their corruption, not their fulfilment

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution (Late (Wollstonecraft's last completed major non-fiction work, three years before her death))
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 Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Cosmic-ordering
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 Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

The historical time of the Revolution itself — the calendar of events from 1789 through 1793 as the framework of analysis.

Space

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

Paris as the spatial centre, but with constant attention to provincial France, the army frontiers, and the international response.

Matter

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

The embodied revolutionary crowd, the legislators, the king's execution — the materiality of revolutionary politics.

Observer

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

Wollstonecraft as the British radical-republican observer attempting historical objectivity from inside the events.

Energy

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

The energies of revolutionary politics — both the moral energy of 1789 and the violent energy of 1792-93.

Information

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

The historical sources Wollstonecraft uses — speeches, decrees, witness reports — as the evidential basis of moral judgement.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

An Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution

Wollstonecraft died in 1797 before continuing the work; only volume I was completed. Her position — defending 1789 against both Burke and the Jacobins — became increasingly difficult to sustain politically as the Terror peaked. The work was understudied for two centuries (her Vindications dominated reception) but has been rediscovered as central to feminist political historiography (Sapiro, Taylor, Tomaselli).