Where Do Features Come From?

Q: Where do features come from?
A: They come from interactions.

"The features of a thing are effects on other 'things':
if one removes other 'things,' then a thing has no features..."
-Nietzsche (Will to Power, #557)

Every feature of an object is the result of some interaction with something else (Nehamas, 1985). If a new object never interacted with anything then we could know none of its features (e.g., color, heaviness, hardness, texture). A set of relations describes the interaction.

Consider a stone.

Being gray is a feature of the stone.
Being heavy is a feature of the stone.

A feature however is a shorthand for an interaction, which is a set of relations.

Being gray describes relations (i.e., an interaction) between light waves bouncing off the stone and into my eye that are interpreted by my brain. So, "gray" is shorthand for relations among light waves, the stone, my eye, and my brain.

Being heavy describes relations between the mass of the stone, the strength of gravity, and the strength of the muscles in my hand and arm. So, "heavy" is shorthand for relations among the stone's mass, gravity, and my hand/arm.

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