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Single Idea 21352

[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / A. Relations / 4. Formal Relations / a. Types of relation ]

Full Idea

A 'unigrade' relation R has a definite degree or adicity: R is binary, or ternary....or n-ary (for some unique n). By contrast a relation is 'multigrade' if it fails to be unigrade. Causation appears to be multigrade.

Gist of Idea

'Multigrade' relations are those lacking a fixed number of relata

Source

Fraser MacBride (Relations [2016], 1)

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.2

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A Reaction

He also cites entailment, which may have any number of premises.

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The 3 ideas from 'Relations'

21352

'Multigrade' relations are those lacking a fixed number of relata [MacBride]

21353

Internal relations are fixed by existences, or characters, or supervenience on characters [MacBride]

21354

It may be that internal relations like proportion exist, because we directly perceive it [MacBride]