Property (philosophy)

A philosophical category expressing the aspect that differentiates an object from or associates it with other objects and that is revealed in the relationship of an object to other objects.
All properties are relative: that is, they do not exist aside from their relationships to other properties and things. Properties are inherent in things and have objective existence, independent of human consciousness. Objective idealism characteristically separates the property from the thing. In other words, a property is understood as something general, existing independently of individual objects and belonging to the sphere of consciousness. Subjective idealism identifies properties with sensations, thereby denying the objective character of properties. V. I. Lenin demonstrated that the identification of the properties of things with sensations contradicts the basic facts of the modern natural sciences and inevitably leads to solipsism (Materializm i empiriokrititsizm [Materialism and Empiriocriticism], Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 18).
To a large extent, the branches of learning are differentiated according to differences between the types of properties they study. Depending on how they change, properties may be divided into those that lack intensity and therefore cannot change in that respect (for example, economic or historical properties) and those that are of variable intensity (for example, weight, temperature, or velocity). The humanities are concerned chiefly with properties of the first type. Mathematics and the natural sciences, including physics, chemistry, and astronomy, study primarily properties of the second type. In modern science, however, there is a growing tendency toward overcoming this distinction, as is evident in the development of affine geometry and topology and the penetration of statistical and mathematical methods into the humanities.
===REFERENCE===
Uemov, A. I. Veshchi, svoistva i otnosheniia. Moscow, 1963.A. I. UEMOV
Category:Philosophy