A relation is, in its simplest form, two concepts and the connection between them. Two related concepts, taken as a whole, are called a relation. Relations are key components of chemical knowledge.
Each relation has three parts: a first concept, a second concept, and the connection. A child is related to its parents. The leaves of a tree are related to its branches. Water is related to wetness. Heat is related to fire. Each example carries the same shape: two concepts, and something between them. Without all three, there is no relation.
There is a small but important distinction here. The concept of related means that two concepts are connected in some way. The concept of relationship defines what that connection is. To say two things are related is to claim they belong to the same network. To name the relationship is to say how. We can ask whether mass is related to volume and answer yes; the relationship between them, where it appears, is what we call density.
As important as the concepts making up knowledge are, the relationships that bind those concepts together are as important. Concepts are the building blocks of knowledge; relationships are the mortar that binds them together. And just as no concept exists in isolation, no relation exists in isolation either. A relation must itself be related to another concept or to another relation. The web extends in all directions.
Question
Can a concept exist by itself, with no relation to any other?
Reveal Merrill's answer →Hide answer
Try it. Try to talk about a dog using no other concepts. It is impossible. Every concept is connected, directly or indirectly, to every other concept. Every concept is related to at least one other concept, by what we call a relation. There are no isolated concepts in knowledge.