@Extrain,
Extrain;157228 wrote:Some properties might be what's called "relational properties" or even "emergent properties"--which is fine with me. But not all properties are relations. I just think about the property of "being human" in terms of my genetic code. Sure, the property of "being human" is defined by the structures and relationships between various proteins and the organization of their parts, so it is an emergent property from these other microstructures which give rise to it. But the definition of "being human" has necessary and sufficient conditions that make humans the way they are. A thing is either a human, or not a human--being human is a non-relational property since it doesn't depend on other non-human properties or things to be the property of being-human which it is. So my being human is not dependent on anything other than having a specific genetic code coming from my parents. But it is still a non-relational property. My parents can die, but I'd still be human. So most properties are monadic properties, not relational ones. All relations are between one or more things, and if one of those things ceases to exist, then that relation no longer holds for those things. Properties are typically intrinsic to things that have them, whereas most relations are extrinsic to things that have them.
I see and respect your point, a consensual one, but don?t personally agree...neither I think in what you said you sufficiently prove me wrong...
What makes me myself is my potential of acting in such and such way, given such and such circumstances...what I am depends on the world around me...I give you a simple example:
If you evaporate from existence a chunk of matter in the Universe, not to energy but to nothingness, thus diminishing the size of the set or of its mass or of its acting energy, everything?s/all objects nature would change...(of course this is impossible to test) but I am convinced of such thing...
Its a bit like the change of your weight if earth would lose some mass, or even the moon, or the sun, or the galaxy...but its far more complicated...and of course there are counter effects that can render some of this null, but they all count for the actual exact state of affairs in the world, and for every particular nature...