Treatise

This article is about the literary form. For the musical composition by Cornelius Cardew, see Treatise (music).

Title page of Sir Isaac Newton's Opticks.

A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.

Origin

The origin of the genre traces its roots to written instructions. The first written instructions that were worthy of preserving would be wisdom literature. Earliest examples come from Ancient Egypt such as The Maxims of Ptahhotep (~2300 BC), the Instructions of Kagemni (~1900 BC), Loyalist Teaching (~1800 BC) and the Instructions of Amenemhat (~1500 BC). When written instructions captured abstract topics like politics, which could only be reliably preserved through documentation, the treatise was born.

The origin of the treatise label occurs around the time that the manuscript culture shifted from monasteries to the market in the cities, which was in the 13th century. Some of the most common genres of manuscripts of the time were bibles and religious commentaries as well as philosophy, law and government texts. The manuscripts that had a systematic discourse were labeled as a trestis, which later became treatise during the late Middle English period. Due to the meaning of treatise being deeper than the definition itself, some works that were particularly significant (or promoted to be significant) in its genre were given the treatise label, inappropriately. For example, when comparing the Vivekacūḍāmaṇi and the Tao Te Ching, both philosophical works, the treatise distinction becomes clear. The Vivekacūḍāmaṇi has a clear systematic discourse with a beginning, middle and end while the Tao Te Ching is fluidly organized.

Clarification and further classification

As the meaning of the word treatise is more inferential than the definition alone, the meaning needs further clarification.

By definition, the key features of a treatise are as follows:

• Written: To expose itself for examination.
• Formal: To make the work open for objective examination by others.
• The subject is intellectual or abstact: If the subject is of the physical or natural world, the work becomes scientific writing.
• Systematic: It is well organized to make it easy to examine by others.
• Comprehensive: It aims to be complete in scope.

In addition to the features above, to qualify as a treatise, the work has to be revolutionary and create a sustained momentum. The revolutionary feature is important as it positions the work as being notable. The sustained momentum feature is important as without it, the work is unsuccessful in exposing the principles of the subject.

Treatises typically don't follow the long tail distribution of popularity like many other written works. They tend to follow the diffusion of innovations theory though on long time scales. This distribution of popularity with time also applies to wisdom literature and possibly other written genres.

Notable treatises

Treatises with historical influence

The works presented here have been identified as influential by scholars on the development of human civilization.

Title	Author	Year	Subject	Influence Reference
The Art of War	Sun Tzu	~500BC	War	Reference
Euclid's Elements	Euclid	~300BC	Geometry	Reference
Arthashastra	Kautilya	~200BC	Statecraft	Reference [1][3]
De architectura	Vitruvius	~30BC	Architecture	Reference
Almagest	Claudius Ptolemaeus	200s	Astronomy	Reference
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi	Adi Shankara	700s	Philosophy	Reference
De re aedificatoria	Leon Battista Alberti	1485	Architecture	Reference
The Prince	Niccolò Machiavelli	1532	Politics	Reference
De revolutionibus orbium coelestium	Nicolaus Copernicus	1543	Astronomy	Reference
Discourse on the Method	René Descartes	1637	Philosophy	Reference
Two Treatises of Government	John Locke	1660	Government	Reference
Opticks	Isaac Newton	1704	Physics	Reference
The Wealth of Nations	Adam Smith	1776	Economics	Reference
On the Origin of Species	Charles Darwin	1856	Biology	Reference

See also

• Compilation thesis
• Edited volume
• Legal treatise
• Monograph
• Tractate
• Tractatus