The doctrine of internal relations with reference to some of the main historical treatments

Abstract

The introduction consists of a brief statement of the points at issue between the doctrines of internal and external relations together with the programme to be followed in the following chapters. I have tried to make it clear in the introduction that my main concern in the following chapters will be with proffering a critical estimate of the doctrine of internal relations whose claim regarding the internality of all relations seems to me to be unjustified. In the first chapter I have tried to show that Aristotle's treatment of the concept of relation contains in an implicit form the seeds of the doctrine of external relations. An attempt has also been made to show that the origin of two important views which the supporters of the doctrine of external relations claim that the internalists contradict can be traced in the writings of Aristotle. These are that relations are not qualities and that they do not always belong to the essences of things. In the second chapter a refutation of the arguments of Bradley, the chief exponent of the doctrine of internal relations, will put us in a good position to reject the doctrine of internal relations. I have tried to establish in the third chapter that the arguments employed by the internalists other than Bradley also do not stand the test of criticisms. In the conclusion I have reiterated my claim that it is impossible for all relations to be internal. I have also made it clear that I shall not try to answer the question whether, granted this, relations would be all, or only some of them, external, since my chief concern in the present paper is with denying the internality of all relations.