“A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight”
E529036
“A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” is a Civil War–era poem by Herman Melville that reflects on the practical, moral, and technological implications of the ironclad warship Monitor’s famous naval engagement.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5531400 — 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: “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” Context triple: [Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War, hasPart, “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight”]
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A.
Utilitarianism: For and Against
Utilitarianism: For and Against is a philosophical book co-authored by J.J.C. Smart and Bernard Williams that presents a classic debate over the merits and criticisms of utilitarian moral theory.
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B.
"The Place of Intelligence in Conduct"
"The Place of Intelligence in Conduct" is a section of John Dewey’s philosophical work *Human Nature and Conduct* that explores how reflective thought and intelligence guide, shape, and improve human action and moral behavior.
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C.
Bentham’s Theory of Fictions
Bentham’s Theory of Fictions is a scholarly work by C. K. Ogden that analyzes and presents Jeremy Bentham’s philosophical account of “fictions” in language, law, and logic.
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D.
The Science of Ethics
The Science of Ethics is a major 19th-century philosophical work by Leslie Stephen that systematically examines moral philosophy and the foundations of ethical theory.
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E.
"The Possibility of Altruism"
"The Possibility of Altruism" is a philosophical work by Thomas Nagel that argues for the rational basis of genuinely altruistic motivation against egoistic theories of practical reason.
- 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: “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” Target entity description: “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” is a Civil War–era poem by Herman Melville that reflects on the practical, moral, and technological implications of the ironclad warship Monitor’s famous naval engagement.
-
A.
Utilitarianism: For and Against
Utilitarianism: For and Against is a philosophical book co-authored by J.J.C. Smart and Bernard Williams that presents a classic debate over the merits and criticisms of utilitarian moral theory.
-
B.
"The Place of Intelligence in Conduct"
"The Place of Intelligence in Conduct" is a section of John Dewey’s philosophical work *Human Nature and Conduct* that explores how reflective thought and intelligence guide, shape, and improve human action and moral behavior.
-
C.
Bentham’s Theory of Fictions
Bentham’s Theory of Fictions is a scholarly work by C. K. Ogden that analyzes and presents Jeremy Bentham’s philosophical account of “fictions” in language, law, and logic.
-
D.
The Science of Ethics
The Science of Ethics is a major 19th-century philosophical work by Leslie Stephen that systematically examines moral philosophy and the foundations of ethical theory.
-
E.
"The Possibility of Altruism"
"The Possibility of Altruism" is a philosophical work by Thomas Nagel that argues for the rational basis of genuinely altruistic motivation against egoistic theories of practical reason.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
literary work
ⓘ
poem ⓘ |
| author | Herman Melville ⓘ |
| compares | traditional naval heroism and mechanical efficiency ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| createdBy | Herman Melville ⓘ |
| depicts | mechanized naval engagement ⓘ |
| evaluates | military success in terms of utility ⓘ |
| focus |
practical outcomes over romantic ideals
ⓘ
technological innovation in naval combat ⓘ |
| form | lyric poem ⓘ |
| genre |
Civil War poetry
ⓘ
war poetry ⓘ |
| historicalContext | American Civil War ⓘ |
| historicalEventDepicted | Battle of Hampton Roads ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryDevice |
contrast
ⓘ
imagery ⓘ irony ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | American Romanticism ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod |
American Civil War era
ⓘ
linked to:
American Civil War
|
| medium | print ⓘ |
| mentionsShip |
CSS Virginia
ⓘ
USS Monitor ⓘ |
| meter | irregular meter ⓘ |
| partOf | Herman Melville’s Civil War poetry ⓘ |
| philosophicalFramework | utilitarian ethics ⓘ |
| questions | traditional notions of glory in war ⓘ |
| reflectsOn |
impact of ironclads on future warfare
ⓘ
relationship between morality and military technology ⓘ |
| setting | sea battle ⓘ |
| subject |
Battle of Hampton Roads
ⓘ
USS Monitor ⓘ ironclad warships ⓘ morality of war ⓘ naval warfare ⓘ pragmatism in combat ⓘ technology in war ⓘ utilitarianism ⓘ |
| theme |
contrast between heroism and machinery
ⓘ
efficiency and utility as measures of value ⓘ impersonal nature of mechanized war ⓘ moral cost of warfare ⓘ practical evaluation of military technology ⓘ |
| tone |
analytical
ⓘ
reflective ⓘ sober ⓘ |
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: “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” Description of subject: “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight” is a Civil War–era poem by Herman Melville that reflects on the practical, moral, and technological implications of the ironclad warship Monitor’s famous naval engagement.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.