External relations cannot truly relate and are not genuine relations

Thus, we find again his regress argument against external relations, motivated by his assumption that such relations cannot relate; external relations are, he writes, no more than “mere abstractions” from relational facts and as such hold no relating power (Bradley 1926: 643). Internal relations are no improvement, and Bradley rejects as untrue any suggestions that he might have wanted to accept them (642). The true problem seems to be that “an actual relation […] must possess at once both the c