Doctrine of internal relations
Encyclopedia
The doctrine of internal relations is the philosophical doctrine that all relations are internal to their bearers, in the sense that they are essential to them and the bearers would not be what they are without them. It was a term used in British philosophy around in the early 1900s.
Some relations are clearly internal in the sense that, for example, four would not be four unless it were related to two in the way it is. Some relations are internal to their bearers under one description but not under another, for example, a wife would not be a wife unless suitably related to a husband, but Mary would still be Mary had she not married. Or take the internal relation where Jack is taller than his wife, Joan. Here the relation is internal to both of them together, in symbolic form it can be given as: Jack(R)Joan, where R is the ordered relation of "Taller than".
The doctrine that all relations are internal implies that everything has some relation, however distant, to everything else. Such a doctrine is ascribed by Russell and Moore
to certain ideas by Hegel and the American philosopher, C.S. Peirce. However neither of these philosophers themselves would describe their own beliefs in this manner, ie, as being doctrinaire. Russell associates it with pragmatism
, objective idealism
and the absolute idealism
of Hegel. It also refers to coherentism
, a holist approach to truth.
So for the example given above of Jack(taller than)Joan, Bertrand Russell
claims that the ordering of the relation is not internal to Jack and Joan taken together. The order is something external imposed on the couple Jack and Joan. This however leaves the question as to the status of the ordering, since it cannot be non-existent. A further step in the process is needed to get beyond Russell's objection and this is to include the person doing the ordering in the example, so we have Jack is taller than Joan, according to Tom, or in symbolic form (Jack(R)Joan)(R2)Tom. However, here again we have another kind of ordering which is not included in the grouping.
However, something approaching the holism of the doctrine of internal relations was later re-instated in the canon of Analytic Philosophy
by Quine
and his criticism of Russellian reductionism
.
Russell had opposed the doctrine of internal relations in his abandonment of idealism by reverting to the age old doctrine of atomism
and a version of Leibnizian monadism, in which the world is conceived as composed of many distinct, independent entities, each of which can be considered in isolation from its relations to other things. The argument itself was first put down on paper in Plato's dialogue Parmenides and is often referred to as the argument of the One and the Many, part of which includes a version of Aristotle's Third Man Argument
, which rejects Platonic Forms and introduces objects as being composed of both form and matter.
A contemporary of Russell, the English philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead
, maintained the necessity of a doctrine of internal relations for the theory of evolution
:
Some relations are clearly internal in the sense that, for example, four would not be four unless it were related to two in the way it is. Some relations are internal to their bearers under one description but not under another, for example, a wife would not be a wife unless suitably related to a husband, but Mary would still be Mary had she not married. Or take the internal relation where Jack is taller than his wife, Joan. Here the relation is internal to both of them together, in symbolic form it can be given as: Jack(R)Joan, where R is the ordered relation of "Taller than".
The doctrine that all relations are internal implies that everything has some relation, however distant, to everything else. Such a doctrine is ascribed by Russell and Moore
George Edward Moore
George Edward Moore OM, was an English philosopher. He was, with Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Gottlob Frege, one of the founders of the analytic tradition in philosophy...
to certain ideas by Hegel and the American philosopher, C.S. Peirce. However neither of these philosophers themselves would describe their own beliefs in this manner, ie, as being doctrinaire. Russell associates it with pragmatism
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
, objective idealism
Objective idealism
Objective idealism is an idealistic metaphysics that postulates that there is in an important sense only one perceiver, and that this perceiver is one with that which is perceived. One important advocate of such a metaphysics, Josiah Royce, wrote that he was indifferent "whether anybody calls all...
and the absolute idealism
Absolute idealism
Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic philosophy attributed to G. W. F. Hegel. It is Hegel's account of how being is ultimately comprehensible as an all-inclusive whole. Hegel asserted that in order for the thinking subject to be able to know its object at all, there must be in some...
of Hegel. It also refers to coherentism
Coherentism
There are two distinct types of coherentism. One refers to the coherence theory of truth. The other refers to the coherence theory of justification. The coherentist theory of justification characterizes epistemic justification as a property of a belief only if that belief is a member of a coherent...
, a holist approach to truth.
So for the example given above of Jack(taller than)Joan, Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. At various points in his life he considered himself a liberal, a socialist, and a pacifist, but he also admitted that he had never been any of these things...
claims that the ordering of the relation is not internal to Jack and Joan taken together. The order is something external imposed on the couple Jack and Joan. This however leaves the question as to the status of the ordering, since it cannot be non-existent. A further step in the process is needed to get beyond Russell's objection and this is to include the person doing the ordering in the example, so we have Jack is taller than Joan, according to Tom, or in symbolic form (Jack(R)Joan)(R2)Tom. However, here again we have another kind of ordering which is not included in the grouping.
However, something approaching the holism of the doctrine of internal relations was later re-instated in the canon of Analytic Philosophy
Analytic philosophy
Analytic philosophy is a generic term for a style of philosophy that came to dominate English-speaking countries in the 20th century...
by Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine
Willard Van Orman Quine was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition...
and his criticism of Russellian reductionism
Reductionism
Reductionism can mean either an approach to understanding the nature of complex things by reducing them to the interactions of their parts, or to simpler or more fundamental things or a philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can...
.
Russell had opposed the doctrine of internal relations in his abandonment of idealism by reverting to the age old doctrine of atomism
Atomism
Atomism is a natural philosophy that developed in several ancient traditions. The atomists theorized that the natural world consists of two fundamental parts: indivisible atoms and empty void.According to Aristotle, atoms are indestructible and immutable and there are an infinite variety of shapes...
and a version of Leibnizian monadism, in which the world is conceived as composed of many distinct, independent entities, each of which can be considered in isolation from its relations to other things. The argument itself was first put down on paper in Plato's dialogue Parmenides and is often referred to as the argument of the One and the Many, part of which includes a version of Aristotle's Third Man Argument
Third Man Argument
The third man argument , first offered by Plato in his dialogue Parmenides, is a philosophical criticism of Plato's own theory of Forms...
, which rejects Platonic Forms and introduces objects as being composed of both form and matter.
A contemporary of Russell, the English philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS was an English mathematician who became a philosopher. He wrote on algebra, logic, foundations of mathematics, philosophy of science, physics, metaphysics, and education...
, maintained the necessity of a doctrine of internal relations for the theory of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
:
"This material is in itself the ultimate substance. Evolution, on the materialistic theory, is reduced to the role of being another word for the description of the changes of the external relations between portions of matter. There is nothing to evolve, because one set of external relations is as good as any other set of external relations. There can merely be change, purposeless and unprogressive. But the whole point of the modem doctrine is the evolution of the complex organisms from antecedent states of less complex organisms. The doctrine thus cries aloud for a conception of organism as fundamental for nature. It also requires an underlying activity -- a substantial activity -- expressing itself in achievements of organism."