Passages from the Life of a Philosopher
E141907
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher is an autobiographical work by Charles Babbage in which he recounts his life, scientific pursuits, and the development of his pioneering calculating machines.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Passages from the Life of a Philosopher canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1249153 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher Context triple: [Charles Babbage, authorOf, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher]
-
A.
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener is a collection of essays in which Martin Gardner explores and defends his views on philosophy, religion, and rational inquiry with his characteristic clarity and wit.
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B.
The Trials of Life
The Trials of Life is a landmark BBC nature documentary series presented by David Attenborough that explores animal behavior and the challenges of survival across different stages of life.
-
C.
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher is a philosophical dialogue by George Berkeley that critiques freethinkers and defends Christian religion and immaterialist philosophy.
-
D.
Pensées philosophiques
Pensées philosophiques is an early 18th-century philosophical work by Denis Diderot that challenges religious dogma and advocates for deism and rational inquiry.
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E.
The Conduct of Life
The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores practical and philosophical questions about how to live ethically and purposefully in the modern world.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher Target entity description: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher is an autobiographical work by Charles Babbage in which he recounts his life, scientific pursuits, and the development of his pioneering calculating machines.
-
A.
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener
The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener is a collection of essays in which Martin Gardner explores and defends his views on philosophy, religion, and rational inquiry with his characteristic clarity and wit.
-
B.
The Trials of Life
The Trials of Life is a landmark BBC nature documentary series presented by David Attenborough that explores animal behavior and the challenges of survival across different stages of life.
-
C.
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher
Alciphron, or The Minute Philosopher is a philosophical dialogue by George Berkeley that critiques freethinkers and defends Christian religion and immaterialist philosophy.
-
D.
Pensées philosophiques
Pensées philosophiques is an early 18th-century philosophical work by Denis Diderot that challenges religious dogma and advocates for deism and rational inquiry.
-
E.
The Conduct of Life
The Conduct of Life is a collection of essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson that explores practical and philosophical questions about how to live ethically and purposefully in the modern world.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
autobiography
ⓘ
memoir ⓘ non-fiction book ⓘ |
| about |
British scientific institutions
ⓘ
Charles Babbage ⓘ history of mathematics ⓘ industrial-era science ⓘ mechanical computation ⓘ |
| author | Charles Babbage ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| describes |
Analytical Engine
ⓘ
Babbage's mechanical calculating machines ⓘ Difference Engine ⓘ |
| documents |
Babbage's collaborations with other scientists
ⓘ
Babbage's interactions with government officials ⓘ development of the Analytical Engine ⓘ development of the Difference Engine ⓘ |
| genre |
autobiography
ⓘ
scientific memoir ⓘ |
| hasPart |
accounts of Babbage's early life
ⓘ
accounts of Babbage's scientific work ⓘ discussion of government support for science ⓘ recollections of contemporaries ⓘ reflections on society and science ⓘ |
| hasTheme |
challenges of scientific funding
ⓘ
innovation in science and technology ⓘ personal reflections on failure and success ⓘ relationship between inventor and state ⓘ social impact of machinery ⓘ |
| influenced | historiography of computing ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryForm | prose ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
development of calculating machines
ⓘ
history of computing ⓘ life of Charles Babbage ⓘ scientific pursuits of Charles Babbage ⓘ |
| mentions |
Ada Lovelace
ⓘ
British Association for the Advancement of Science ⓘ Royal Society ⓘ contemporary scientists and engineers ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first-person ⓘ |
| notableFor |
detailed description of Babbage's engines
ⓘ
first-hand account of early computing machines ⓘ insight into 19th-century scientific culture ⓘ |
| timePeriodDescribed | 19th century ⓘ |
| usedAsSourceBy |
biographers of Charles Babbage
ⓘ
historians of computing ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher Description of subject: Passages from the Life of a Philosopher is an autobiographical work by Charles Babbage in which he recounts his life, scientific pursuits, and the development of his pioneering calculating machines.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.