Full Idea
Sometimes a predicate is true of a thing, not because (or only because) of any properties it has, but because something else, perhaps something related to it in certain ways, has certain properties.
Gist of Idea
Some truths are not because of a thing's properties, but because of the properties of related things
Source
Sydney Shoemaker (Causality and Properties [1980], §02)
Book Reference
Shoemaker,Sydney: 'Identity, Cause and Mind' [OUP 2003], p.209
A Reaction
I'm on mission to prize predicates and properties apart, and the strategy is to focus on what is true of something, given that this may not ascribe a property to the thing.