Objecthood

Objecthood is the state of being an object. One approach to defining it is in terms of objects' properties and relations.

Descriptions of all bodies, minds, and persons must be in terms of their properties and relations.

The philosophical question of the nature of objecthood concerns how objects are related to their properties and relations.

For example it seems that the only way to describe an apple is by describing its properties and how it is related to other things.

Its properties may include its redness, its size and its composition, while its relations may include "on the table", "in the room" and "being bigger than other apples".

The notion of an object must address two problems: the change problem and the problem of substance.

Two leading theories about objecthood are substance theory, wherein substances (objects) are distinct from their properties, and bundle theory, wherein objects are no more than bundles of their properties.