Full Idea
When we come to asymmetrical relations, such as before and after, greater and less etc., the attempt to reduce them to properties becomes obviously impossible.
Gist of Idea
With asymmetrical relations (before/after) the reduction to properties is impossible
Source
Bertrand Russell (Our Knowledge of the External World [1914], 2)
Book Reference
Russell,Bertrand: 'Our Knowledge of the External World' [Routledge 1993], p.58
A Reaction
The traditional Aristotelian reduction to properties is attributed by Russell to logic based on subject-predicate. As an example he cites being greater than as depending on more than the mere magnitudes of the entities. Direction of the relation.