Why did William James argue that relations between things are part of experience?

William James argued that relations between things are part of experience because he believed they are just as much matters of direct, particular experience as the things themselves.12

In his theory of radical empiricism, James contended that the universe possesses a continuous, concatenated structure held together by these relations. By asserting that relations—whether conjunctive or disjunctive—are directly apprehended, he rejected the need for "hidden substrata" or extraneous, transempirical support to explain how the world coheres or clashes.12

This perspective distinguished his work from earlier empiricists, such as David Hume, who did not grant relations the same status as the objects they connect. For James, the reality of these relations meant that the world does not require a transcendent, metaphysical ground to provide unity; instead, the parts of experience hold together "from next to next" through relations that are themselves fundamental components of that experience.12