# Are Shapes Intrinsic? Bradford Skow **Opening (not a real abstract):** Are shapes intrinsic? Intuitively, an intrinsic property is a property that characterizes something as it is in itself. What intrinsic properties something has in no way depends on what other things exist (things other than it or its parts) or how it is related to them. With extrinsic properties (properties that are not intrinsic), by contrast, other things can “get in on the act” when it comes to determining whether something has them. So consider your left hand. Ignore the other things that exist and consider it as it is in itself. Does it have a shape? Or does it, when so considered, become shapeless? Immediately, “it does have a shape!” seems like the right answer. (Indeed, shapes are often cited as paradigm cases of intrinsic properties.) The proposition that shapes are intrinsic thus has the power of intuition behind it, and that is reason **Authors:** [[Bradford Skow]]