Comparative Intrinsicness: Reconciling Relationality and Reality in Kant’s Account of Phenomena

Kant asserts that phenomena consist only in relations, a puzzling claim that appears difficult to reconcile with the reality of phenomenal change. This difficulty may be called the challenge of global relationality. This paper proposes a solution to this challenge by showing that Kant’s notion of relationality is grounded in the spatiality of phenomena and differs from typical contemporary accounts. A subset of empirical properties can be regarded as comparatively intrinsic, as they retain a genuine sense of intrinsicness while remaining relational in space, and that real changes can take place in the phenomenal realm if they involve such properties.